The Gold and Silver Ship
by MechSoldier19
Summary: In a timeline unlike our own, a race of seafaring beings has started terrorizing the world's oceans. Humanity has been putting up a fight, but has done little more than slow them down. Now, a task force of the world's most effective ships are being brought together so humanity may take the war to the enemy. Rated M for language, violence and adult situations
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Okay guys, this is my first submitted work. I love writing fiction, and I've been wanting to submit something for the longest time. So naturally, after recently graduating from high school and inheriting loads of free time before I start a summer job, I decided to sit my ass down and finally commit myself to writing. The universe I've been wanting to write into wasn't hard to decide, as I'd been bouncing the thought around ever since watching** ** _KanColle_** **. So without further ado, I give you my very first work;** ** _The Gold and Silver Ship_** **.**

 **Please keep in mind that while I like to write, I am fairly inexperienced. I would appreciate if you pointed out errors or flaws in my writing so I can address them in future updates.**

 **I do not own anything besides the story and the original characters.**

* * *

Three thousand years. For three thousand years, mankind has fought among themselves on the world's seas and oceans. In that time, humanity went from simple galleys moved by sail and oar, to massive battleships powered by immense machines no-one three thousand years ago could have dreamed of. From the times of Mesopotamia and Assyria, to the Greeks and Persians, the Romans and Carthaginians, and most recently the navies of the world fought in the Great War. The war to end all wars, it was called. And for a short time, it seemed that the name rang true. No longer would humanity be embattled for dominance.

How wrong they were.

* * *

 **July 28th, 1939  
Off the coast of the Philippine Islands  
FV _Swan_  
**

 _'Fuck me, it's too early for this bullshit.'_ Kidlat thought as he made his way to the engine room. For the second night in a row, one of the two engines powering the boat had sputtered and died, leaving the forty-five meter vessel severely under-speed. Standard procedure called for the remaining engine to be cut while the ship's engineer, who, unfortunately, was Kidlat in this case, inspected the damage and made a decision on what to do.

Stopping at the Mess on the way there, Kidlat grabbed a lukewarm cup of coffee and gave it a sip before continuing on his path.

 _'Cook hasn't even refreshed the pot since last night. I thought we agreed to make a new one every four hours?'_ He complained mentally while checking his watch. ' _Yep, been seven hours since dinner. Lazy bastards, this crew, all of them. But I suppose that's all part o-'_

His thoughts were jarred as the ship violently jumped, throwing him against the bulkhead. He felt his shoulder pop out of place before being reset, resulting in a terrible pain that left Kidlat screaming in pain before biting his lip.

' _All hands, we've been hit by something!'_

"I could've fucking told you that!" Kidlat roared at the ceiling as he slowly raised himself from the hard floor.

' _We don't know what it was, but be prepared to abandon ship! I re-'_

The ship's captain didn't finish his sentence before an explosion ripped through the bridge, killing him instantly.

Kidlat didn't know what the hell was going on, but he knew there was very little time to ensure his survival. If he was quick, he could climb the stairs leading to the deck on the port side of the ship near the lifejacket storage and launch himself over the side. Knowing that, he enacted his plan only to take three steps before the wall ahead of him was punctured and started spraying warm seawater into the compartment.

Kidlat stopped in his tracks when he saw what breached the wall.

A ghostly white fist and arm up to the elbow was stuck through the wall.

He couldn't help but watch with astonishment and fear as a second fist appeared and started widening the hole, leaking more and more water into the compartment.

He was scared shit-less, but he knew he only had a few seconds before that _thing_ made it into the room and did who knows what to Kidlat. He turned on his heel and ran back down the short hallway to the starboard side of the ship, finding the other set of stairs leading to the deck. Throwing himself up the stairs and occasionally slipping, Kidlat made it topside and could only briefly take in what he saw before he threw himself overboard.

The bridge was gone. Just... fucking _gone_.

In it's place was a gout of flame rising at least 30 feet into the air, lighting up the night sky. Near the bow of the ship, it was obvious that something had nearly sheared the ship in two, creating a huge gash that stretched from the beams on both port and starboard and cutting along the top, reached two decks down on the three deck ship.

 _'I have to get out of here!'_ He repeated to himself over and over as he frantically swam from the now rapidly sinking ship. He swam towards the nearest island, Luzon, but it was easily 40 km away and, with his shoulder, he doubted he could make a quarter of that. But he refused to die. He roared against it. If he could have, he would've punched the thought of dying now after surviving as long as he had.

The _Swan_ was no longer visible. It was pulled under not more than two minutes after Kidlat jumped off.

He had calmed down to the point where he could more easily process what had just happened. Something had sunk the ship, that much was obvious. But why? And perhaps more importantly, who?

Kidlat was still pondering these questions when he felt himself being lifted from the water by a pair of hands, and forcefully turned around as he was two feet above the water.

There, standing in front of him, was an incredibly pale woman-no, girl. She didn't look much more than sixteen or seventeen. And yet, with her age and fairly diminutive size, she was able to lift him two feet off the water. Between fits of panic, Kidlat had a thought.

' _Is she standing?! On water?!'_

The girl's short dark hair gently moved and framed her face in a breeze, almost concealing the malicious stare in her glowing blue eyes that appeared almost flame-like. Her hands readjusted themselves so one was caressing his face while the other was firmly around his throat.

"Shhhhh. Don't worry. You won't be very lonely for long." The girl seethed. Kidlat felt the hand on his throat tighten, cutting off his air before he felt a small twitch in that same hand.

His world went dark.

* * *

 **June 7th, 1942  
Pearl Harbor**

Stepping out of the car, I was greeted by a wall of humidity and a bright sun.

"Jesus, I'm gonna fry my eyes! Louie, hand me my glasses!" I yelled into the car.

"Calm down Moe, geez. You're acting like a goddamn vampire. Here," he says as he hands me a pair of aviators from inside the cab.

"Thanks. Now get your ass out of the nice cool car and be miserable with me."

"Fine, fine, who made you the fuckin' boss?" Louie says as he reluctantly gets out from the driver side door.

"I don't know, could it be the fact that I'm the oldest and you're the youngest?" I say as I land a teasing punch into his shoulder.

"More like you're the dumbest and I'm the best looking!" Louie says, reciprocating the punch I gave him.

It goes on like this for some time before we're interrupted by a seaman saying that he is supposed to be our escort.

"Nah don't worry about it friend," I say from the headlock my brother has managed to get me in, "Just point us in the direction of our bunks and the nearest place we can find some ladies and we'll be on our way"

"Sir!" The sailor yells, "I'm under direct orders from Admiral Nimitz to show you to your bunks, and bring you to him immediately!"

The mention of the name gets us to stop.

"Shit," Louie mutters.

"Yep, seems that way." I sigh as Louie releases me from the headlock, and I look towards the sailor, "What's your name friend?"

"Petty Officer 2nd Class Brent Yuhler, sir!" He replies with a salute.

"Nice to meet you Brent," I say extending my hand "USS Montana at your service. This here is my baby brother." I say pointing my thumb to Louie.

Louie nods and says "USS Louisiana. Nice to meet you."

Brent takes my hand with more than just a little trepidation. "I had heard that they'd be sending out some frogmen, but damn, I didn't expect to meet the new _Montana_ classes!"

"Frogmen?" I ask.

"Oh, sorry sir. That's our nickname for the people produced by the _Ark_ initiative. Hope you don't mind." Brent says a little nervously.

"No, no, no, no, no, I like it! Besides, it's at least acknowledging the fact that we're people and not just... y'know." I shrug.

"Between you and me, sir, I've already met a few of you guys and I'd invite any single one of you to a barbecue. You're as human as it gets, sir." Brent says with a smile.

"Appreciate that, friend." I say as I clap him on the shoulder, "But cut it out with the honorifics. I don't like having people older than me call me 'sir"

"Could've fooled me." Louie says aloud.

I give him a death glare that would make many a man shiver in his boots, but my brother just crosses his arms and stares right back at me, a smirk plastered on his dumb face.

"Whatever. Let's get moving, Brent."

* * *

Brent led the way to a building which, he said, would be our dorm for the duration of our stay at Pearl Harbor. It was a two story dorm with no furnishings, unless you count empty military bunks and footlockers furniture. Seriously, this was the type of place where you could put bars on the windows and it would warm it up immensely. After getting familiar with the building, which we were the only occupants of, Louie and I retrieved our bags from Brent's car and placed them on the bunks we had chosen. Afterwards, we made one more trip to retrieve the trunks containing our gear.

Now, the luggage we were both carrying may seem like over-sized trunks, but they were more akin to a very small closet. To use, simply prop one side up, open the door, walk in and press a few buttons. From there, the closet itself would outfit us with our rigs automatically. An awkward experience for sure, the first few times. Like being dressed by your mother. Anyways, the closet/trunk would take forty to fifty seconds to fix you up in anything you'd need to kill Abyssals. Maybe a bit more if you were a bigger guy.

Unfortunately for Louie and I, we were both bigger guys.

As ships of the same class (I hesitate to call us sister-ships because... well you know), we both have a similar athletic build with broad shoulders, and look to be young adults. But even though we are from the same class, we do indeed have different appearances, thank God. Louie has darkly tanned skin, similar to farmers or outdoor-type folk, while I'm pale. And when I say pale, I mean ghostly. Whereas he has a mop of dark brown hair on his crown, my hair is a lighter brown that has a tendency to knot when it gets long, so I like to keep it short. Anyways, because of our difference in appearance Louie drew even more of the short end of the stick. While our wider build made entering the trunk uncomfortable, Louie also has the misfortune of being taller than I am, his six-three to my six-one. Therefore, I'd usually be good to go in a minute but Louie was usually done in a minute-fifteen.

Serves you right for making fun of your older brother, ya jerk.

We didn't bother unpacking since Brent had said that Nimitz was waiting for us, and we sure as hell weren't going to keep the old man waiting. We loaded back up into the car with Brent at the wheel, me at shotgun and Louie sitting in the seat behind Brent.

"Hey, Moe..." Louie asked.

"Yep?" I reply.

"When's the last time we saw the old man?" I knew that Louie already knew when it was, but I decided to humor him.

"It was the last day of training. The commissioning ceremony before we all got split up." An odd thing, for sure, commissioning people the same way one would commission a ship. Thankfully without the bottle of champagne being smashed against us.

"Yeah... yeah you're right." I could tell that Louie was thinking about it, but I decided to let it lie. No point in bringing it up when all it would do is dredge unpleasant memories for the both of us.

"Hey Brent," I started, "What do you guys do around here for fun? All I've seen so far are fuckin' warehouses, open fields, runways and cranes. Ain't there anything else?"

"Montana, you've been here an entire, what, three hours? I hardly think you're one to give a tour of the place." He quickly replied. "Besides, if I'm honest I don't know if you'll even be here long enough to experience it."

"Now what's that supposed to mean?" Oooh I was curious now.

"Look, I'll let the ol-, I mean Admiral Nimitz explain it to you. I don't _know_ anything. Just scuttlebutt." Brent was quick to shrug this off. I made note of that.

"Nah, see, that's not how this works Brent. We ain't been anything but compliant and courteous with you. You gotta let us in on it, man." I bargained.

"Alright, alright. Listen good, 'cause I'm only gonna say this once." He briefly took his eyes off the road to look into each of our eyes. We respond by leaning in closer.

"Word is, the Japs are sending delegates to all over the world to start a task force composed of people like you guys-" He points to us. "To fight the Abyssals." He shrugs his shoulders. "That's it. All I've heard."

"Fuuuuck." Louie let's out in a long, low breath from the back seat as he reclines back.

"That's what they've been saying, eh?" I ask. Brent nods. "Well... I guess it's for the best that we're seeing the old man then."

The rest of the ride to Nimitz' office is in silence.

* * *

We'd been in Nimitz' secretary's room for fifteen minutes, waiting for his call to come in. Louie and I sat next to each other on a wood bench, Brent stood a few feet away next to the secretary, having a friendly conversation while she occasionally tapped on a typewriter.

"Moe..." Louie said, staring at the floor.

"Louie? What's wrong?" I was worried. He always got like this when he was emotional.

He turned sharply to look at me. "You know goddamn well what's wrong. I can't go in there Moe, I'll kill him."

Louie is my brother, I know when he is and isn't kidding.

He wasn't kidding.

"Look, I hate him too, alright? You know that. You know that I'll never forgive him for what he did to Newt and Ohio." I grabbed his head and pulled him close.

"But this is big Louie, real big. Truth be told, I don't know why something like this hasn't been tried before but it's happening now. And we _need_ to be a part of it. For them. We might not have been able to save them, but we can sure as hell end this war for them. Alright?" There wasn't a response, so I look into his eyes.

"Alright?" A war was going on in his eyes. Grief and sadness were visible, but you only had to look one layer deeper to see the anger and resentment Louisiana had for this man.

He nodded.

"Let's just get our orders and fuck off. I don't want to be here any longer than I have to." He finally said.

"That's for sure." I say as I release him.

At that same moment, a buzz comes over the secretary's intercom. She stands up and waves Louisiana and I over.

"Gentlemen, the Admiral is ready to see you now." She opens the door and stands beside it.

I go through first, nodding my thanks to her, with Louie close behind.

We stand abreast and give a crisp salute.

Standing before us is Chester Nimitz. Fleet Admiral of the Navy and all around military legend.

And the creator of the _Ark_ Project.

He's a bit more haggard than I remember him, his hair is a bit grayer and he seems to have lost a bit of weight.

But the scheming and perceptive look in his eyes is as sharp as ever.

"Boys." He gives a short salute and motions for us to take a seat in front of his desk.

Now, naturally, I want to take the seat, since it looks a damn sight more comfortable than that bench we sat on in the waiting room.

But as I reach for it Louie says, "Thank you sir, but I'd rather stand."

Well. Looks like I'm standing.

"Fair enough." He said as he took a seat in his office chair.

"Look, boys, I'll cut right to the chase so we can end this uncomfortable experience." Nimitz says as he leans forward in his chair, placing both hands on his desk.

Interesting. I've never seen the Admiral be this forward. A professional respect, if I had to take a guess.

"Two days ago, I received an envoy from Imperial Japan. They propose a task force composed of American, Japanese, British, German and Italian Arks, or, what they call _KanMusu_. As you can tell, I agreed to the plan. You two, along with a few you'll meet soon enough, will be the US' contribution to the Task Force."

"Sir, did they say anything about the Soviets?" I inquire, knowing the answer.

"Now, Montana, you know as well as I do that they just don't have the naval power to create an Ark. Plus, I doubt they'd have any interest in cooperating." I nodded, not surprised at all that he called me out on my bluff.

"Any questions? Doubts, perhaps?" Nimitz' wasn't kidding about getting this done quick.

"Sir, I'm uneasy about working with these other ships. Why are they just now proposing this task force?" Way to go Louie! Putting the mission before your feelings!

"In fact, I'm surprised you just accepted it without giving it a second thought." Or not.

Nimitz sighed and said, "Look, Louie. I'm an old man. This war is taking it out of me. If this task force brings us even an inch closer to ending it, I'm all for it. But don't you dare think for one second that I'm just throwing my assets into the fray simply at the request of some gussied up Jap. Got it?" He stared hard at Louisiana, pointing at him.

Louie merely stared straight ahead and didn't respond.

"Good. Anything else?"

There was only one thing I could think of.

"Sir, how are the other nations' Arks' abilities in comparison to our own? Obviously I know our own forces' capabilities and am comfortable fighting with them, but I must echo Louisiana's apprehension in fighting with these guys when I don't even know if they could keep up with us."

"Still humble as ever, aren't you Moe?"

I didn't respond.

"The Japanese Navy is all in. They're dedicating all they're assets to the task force. I have a few personnel files on the Arks from a few different navies already confirmed to be a part of the task force. I'll have Brent give them to you before your flight to Okinawa." That caught me off guard.

"Sir! Okinawa seems pretty damn far from American waters!" I couldn't help it. I know my purpose as an Ark is to follow orders and kill Abyssals, but I had seen far too many friends killed at their hands. Friends that were human and Ark alike. I was more than a little reluctant to, in my eyes, abandon the ones I still had.

The old man looked hard at me.

"Do you even understand what you're going to be a part of, kid?" He stood up and walked towards me.

Shit. Here we go.

"This movement could be the first and biggest step towards ending the war for good. But you're too goddamn caught up in your hero complex to even realize that." He sighed and put his hand on my shoulder.

"You two aren't our only hope in defending the homeland, we've got plenty of ships to do that. But I need you boys to do this." He takes his hand off my shoulder.

"Are we clear?"

Neither of us respond.

"Good. Montana, I'm appointing you as the official American representative to the task force. You're all leaving tomorrow at 1300. Dismissed."

Louisiana and I both salute before turning on our heels and walking back out the door. Brent is still there talking to the secretary, named Suzanne apparently.

"Hey, what's up? How'd it go?" He quickly ended his conversation and hopped to us.

"Brent, just... take us to the dorm." Louie says exasperatedly. I'm inclined to agree with him so I nod my concurrence.

"Y-yeah, okay. Let's head out." Louie and I are already out the door while Brent is giving farewells to Suzanne.

Another silent ride, this time to the dorm.

* * *

It's been a few hours since the meeting with Nimitz, but Louie and I still haven't talked about it. He's been working out while I've been sitting on my bunk listening to the radio and thinking. Brent came in not too long ago with the files Nimitz promised, but I have yet to look through them.

The Admiral was right. Louisiana and I don't have to worry about protecting the homeland when we have so many more Arks and ships that can do the job just as well as us. Plus, it's not like we were the only ones protecting it in the first place.

Alright, my mind was made up.

We'll do it.

But that didn't mean I was any less keen on leaving Stateside. I was just more aware of the implications if I didn't.

Namely my placement at the ass end of nowhere with no fighting or my decommissioning and court martial for insubordination.

I sighed and sat up in the bunk before turning off the radio on the floor beside my bed. Louie looked at me inquisitively.

"You know we're doing it, right?" I asked him.

He had been shadowboxing and relaxed his stance. He shrugged and said, "Yeah, I figured as much." He put his hands on his hips before saying, "Y'know, I hate the old man for what he did to our siblings, and I might've given him shit for it at the meeting... but this is the right thing to do. You know that." He walked over and turned the radio back on.

And with that he was right back to sparring his imaginary partner.

Hearing it come from Louie made it a bit easier.

Well, if we're decided I guess I better get to work.

' _I can start by getting to know my future coworkers'_ I thought as I picked up the stack of folders.

* * *

 **June 8th, 1942  
Pearl Harbor**

The next morning was cold, and the dorm was drafty.

Picking myself up from the bed I put on a pair of sweatpants and a sweatshirt and did my morning run of fifteen miles, before coming back and working on some strength stuff.

Today is the day, huh?

As the team leader, I slotted everybody to be at the warehouse at 1000 so we could get some time to know everyone. Brent and I got a quick bite at an off-base restaurant while Louie ate at the Mess. Apparently, Brent would be coming with us, to our surprise as well as his.

"Admiral chose me to be your secretary, the bastard." I chose to take the disappointment at his position, rather than being caused by having to work with me.

After a heavy breakfast, Brent drove to the Mess and we picked up Louie, who looked a bit worse for wear. Obviously, being bombarded by questions from young and eager sailors isn't exactly a great way to start the day if you're more the strong silent type. Sadly a few seamen had to find that out first-hand as Louisiana forcibly removed them from his presence.

A terrible thing, yes, but funny as hell to see nonetheless.

We arrived at the warehouse at 1010. Good, late enough that all the Arks should be here by now, but not late enough to be considered too unbecoming of a superior officer.

All in all, we were taking three battleships, two carriers, four cruisers and five destroyers.

The battleships were me and Louisiana, along with USS California. California was a woman, and what a woman she was. She was five-eleven, with sun-kissed skin, a small amount of freckles dotting her upper cheeks, and almost white blonde hair that went down to her waist.

Not to mention a *ahem* bust size that reflected her sixteen inch guns.

For the carriers we were bringing USS Lexington and USS Bataan, a "normal" and light carrier respectfully. Lexington, or Lex, was a guy of about six foot with an average build and closely cropped black hair. Bataan was a bit shorter and slimmer, and always has a scowl on his face which was usually covered by his long blonde hair. Much debate has been had to determine the origin of the scowl, and we decided it was because Lex is always treating him like a little brother.

The carriers' abilities were... odd, obviously. But then again, we were a bunch of, basically, kids that embodied the spirits of ships, so who am I to judge? Anyways, the carriers each hefted around a bag with different projectiles in them. Long story short, the projectile would turn into a squadron of a certain type of plane when thrown or shot, depending on the projectile. Don't ask me who flies them, I don't know. The whole concept freaked me out.

For cruisers, we had USS Quincy, USS Baltimore, USS Montpelier and USS Phoenix. Baltimore and Phoenix were girls while Quincy and Montpelier were boys.

An interesting bunch, the four of them resembled teenagers, and their mindset wasn't much different than one either. But they at least knew how and when to follow orders. As becoming of their seeming age, they were fairly mischievous. I'll have to keep an eye out for them. I don't intend on one of our key players being ejected from the game because they thought they were being funny.

Finally, we have the destroyers. Jesus Christ were my hands going to be full.

We had USS Cotten, USS Bell, USS Izard, USS Young and USS Rooks.

They were all girls. And they were kids.

Fuuuuuuck.

Okay, they weren't necessarily kids, but they looked and acted liked elementary kids or middle-schoolers, and they looked the part too. However I feel like I'm being too hard on them. They were all great girls for sure. But holy hell, they will would not stop talking about how cute Louie and I are, or how cool the cruisers were, or how they want to grow up to look like California.

Like I said, good girls, bad age.

Some task force this is turning out to be.

I only pray that the other navies don't have the same personalities that we do, because then my life will become even more of a living hell than it already is.

I spend almost three hours getting to know the other Arks, while Brent runs an equipment check. He is smart, and also seems like the type of guy who gets shit done. I mentally thanked Nimitz for choosing him to be my assistant, even if Brent thought the position was less than prestigious.

A bit behind schedule, our plane rolled up to the warehouse and started loading up. I didn't mind the tardiness as it gave me a bit more time to admire California.

She caught me looking more than once, but she must be used to it since she teasingly played along.

All of us boarded the civilian model C-47, with a couple of the destroyers obviously more than a little excited to be flying for the first time. We were wheels up at 1320, and something in my gut told me it would be a long flight.

Just then Rooks and Izard got sick and came crashing through the middle path to reach the lavatory. Not a crazy thing to happen since it was their first time flying, but the real trouble came when the cruisers started messing with the destroyers and calling them names.

I looked to my left to ask Louie for assistance, only to find him already sleeping like a log. Finding him already unconscious, I instead looked across the path at California to find her intently reading some book. She looked up in time to see my pleading eyes, only to solemnly shake her head with a slight smirk.

 _'How do you manage to still be so beautiful even when plunging a dagger in my gut?'_ I found myself imagining.

I sighed and unbuckled my seatbelt.

 _'Yep,'_ I thought to myself as I started heading towards the trouble area of the cabin, _'A long flight indeed.'_

* * *

 **Footnote: Thanks for reading guys! Like I said, this is my very first story so I would really appreciate feedback regarding style, diction, etc. so that I may improve in future updates.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hey guys, I've started my summer job so updates may come at a bit longer intervals, probably weekly. But I will be writing when I can and trying to put out a chapter regularly!**

 **Anyways, here's chapter two of _The Gold and Silver Ship_.  
**

 **As always, I'd appreciate a review saying if you liked it, hated it, and why.**

* * *

 **June 9th, 1942  
DC-3 Over the Pacific  
**

As I had thought, the flight was Hell.

For the first half, all of the bigger ships left me alone to look after the smaller ships, and my pseudo-babysitting mainly consisted of slapping the cruisers upside the head for messing with the destroyers and consoling the destroyers because their feelings were hurt.

The second half was thankfully quieter, as the realization dawned on both groups that we would be traveling for nearly twenty hours, so the cruisers got bored and moved on to something else while the destroyers all slept. That finally gave me some time of my own, and I had intended to spend the time in a state similar to death while sleeping. But I couldn't sleep.

I guess being the commander of a unit of ship-people that will be a part of perhaps one of the most important units in history is a bit more nerve-wracking than I thought.

If Louie had been awake, I would've talked to him about it to calm my nerves, but he was somehow still asleep after nearly ten hours. So I kept to myself and the thoughts that were slowly eroding away my composure.

That is, they would've, if California hadn't noticed my behavior and invited me to talk with her.

"Hey, Montana... are you okay?" She asked, not hiding her worried tone in the least.

It is at this point that I realize I had been sitting stock-still and staring at the seat ahead of me for nearly half an hour. I jolt upwards in my seat a bit, the same way a schoolkid might when being woken up in the middle of class.

"Huh? Oh, yeah California, I'm, uh... I'm fine." I say as I rub my eyes.

"Sure you are. You would've jump straight through the roof of this plane had you not been strapped in!" Well, she did surprise me, but that was a bit of an exaggeration. "What's up? You know you can talk to me."

California was an easy person to talk to for me, almost as easy as talking to one of my siblings. We never really got to know each other for a while after our commissioning since she was in the class ahead of mine, but we had served together in a few fleets, notably on the Atlantic front with both sets of siblings, hers and mine.

Because of this, she was there with me, Louie and Maine when our brother Ohio and sister New Hampshire died.

Those were... rough times. To say the least.

But California was there and helped us through it, me in particular. She had lost her only sibling, Tennessee, in the same battle that we lost ours, so she knew exactly what we were going through. She always talked to us and never hesitated to lend a shoulder to cry on when we needed it.

That last part was mainly for me and Maine. Louie liked California, but he found solace elsewhere.

However, it was during one of those times that I needed comfort when I discovered something about Cali.

She was there for us, but we had hardly been there for her in regards to her lost sibling. In fact, her loss was perhaps even harsher than ours, since she only had Tennessee while I still had Louisiana and Maine.

It was nighttime in her dorm room with her crying on my shoulder, our roles reversed, that I finally figured this out.

It was from then on that we all swore, California, Maine, Louie and I, that we would be there for each other no matter what happened or what we needed.

It was considering this pact that I felt comfortable sharing with Cali.

I unbuckled and got up from my seat to take the unoccupied one next to her on the other side of the center pathway. I flopped myself into the seat and slouched while she looked at me intently, waiting for me to speak.

"Truth be told Cali, I don't know if I'm ready for this." I turned my gaze up from the floor to look in her eyes.

She merely scoffed, and said, "Moe, why the Hell would you _ever_ entertain that thought?"

I shrugged. "I'm a newer ship. I mean, I've lead fleets before but I don't think I have nearly enough experience to take on a task as important as this." I turned my eyes to the floor again.

Cali grabbed my left hand in both of hers. Her skin was remarkably soft, especially considering it is harder to penetrate than steel.

"Montana..." Her words were somewhat lost on me as I concentrated on how good her hands felt. "You have to understand that Nimitz wouldn't have chosen you if there was a better option."

"So what, he only chose me because he had to?" Her point hadn't connected in me yet.

"No." She grabbed my face in one of her fine hands and brought it to level with hers. "I'm saying that the old man believes you're ready for this. And we both know him, that should be considered high praise. But I think the more important thing you need to realize is this," She brought me in to a hug. "We all believe in you, Moe. All of us could never ask for a better commander."

"I sure as hell could." Oh great. Louie's awake.

I flip him the bird as I reciprocate the hug to California.

Aaaand it's at this point I realize that the rest of the team has gathered around us with content or smug look on their faces.

"Geez, Montana's making moves on California? I thought he liked them younger." Quincy says as he winks at the destroyers.

The destroyers respond by blushing hard and nervously running back to their seats.

The cruisers' laughter is interrupted by me picking each of them up by the collars of their shirts and carrying them back to their seats.

When I return, Lex is standing there with his arms crossed and smirking at me.

"What? Take a picture, It'll last longer." I snap. The cruisers snicker behind me.

Lex merely lets out a silent laugh and turns back to his seat.

I return to my seat feeling more comfortable after the conversation I had with Cali, and manage to fall asleep for the remainder of the flight.

* * *

 **June 10th, 1942  
** **Okinawa**

Much like Hawaii, stepping out of the plane into the hot, humid air felt like walking into a wall.

The team dismounted the plane fairly quickly, with me being last off since I wanted to chat with the pilot.

Making my way down the stairs I was greeted by the sight of my team standing in a semicircle around something instead of offloading their gear like they should've been doing. I made my way down to them to "encourage" them to get their shit done when I realized what they were looking at.

Standing in a line were four people, three girls and one guy, all looking at the team. I recognized a few of them as members of other nations' navies, so I went to introduce myself.

I took a few steps ahead of the group before turning around and loudly ordering them to retrieve their gear from the plane before turning back around to the international group. I stood at attention and flashed a salute.

"USS Montana, official representative to the United States. I look forward to working with all of you." I lowered my hand.

The woman on the furthest left, a white woman with a slight tan, long auburn ponytail and a strange outfit that looked like a mix of a waitress and a maid spoke first.

"SS Italia, servant and representative to the Kingdom of Italy. _Piacere di conoscerla_." She said with a slight bow of her head.

The man went next. He was about my height, had slicked back blonde hair and had a air of regality about him.

"HMS Nelson. Chosen representative to her Majesty the Queen. Good to meet you old boy." He stuck out his hand and I shook it firmly. I wasn't surprised that the English ship seemed _very_ English.

The next in line was an attractive pale woman with long blonde hair and a distractingly form-fitting grey sailor outfit and thigh-high grey boots.

If her body language didn't tell me she was unimpressed with what she saw, the sour look on her face did.

She regarded me with a scowl, the type of look a Social Darwinist would give a bum, and said with not just a little bit of forcefulness, "KMS Bismarck. I don't think I need to tell you who I represent. You'd do well to watch and learn."

Okay, I lied. I looked forward to working with all of them _except_ Bismarck.

The next _Ark_ to introduce themselves was the one I payed the most attention to, not because I saw her as a threat or anything like that.

She was just so damn beautiful, easily giving California a run for her money.

"IJN Nagato. Secretary ship to the Admiral, who'll be our commander in the coming operations." She bowed.

 _'Secretary ship? She seemed oddly proud about that fact'_ I noted.

Her English was spoken slowly, much like someone who is just learning the language or isn't sure of their words. But I hung on to every single one of those words as they dripped from her small mouth.

She had long black hair, ruby red eyes and a strong look on her face. A cursory glance would tell you that she was a confident woman, as she carried herself proudly and with dignity.

I noticed that, of course, but what caught my attention more was her outfit.

She had a headset that came around the back of her head from the backs of her ears, with two long prongs pointing out of it.

 _'Interesting,_ ' I thought. _'I need to make sure to get time with her so I can ask her about it._ '

Complementing this was a midriff-baring getup that most men would only approve of seeing on the most attractive women.

And they would certainly approve her wearing it.

"Admiral, huh? I figured we'd be under Japanese command. Is 'Admiral' his name?" I joked.

She didn't find it as funny as I did. "We are his subordinates and therefore it is not our place to ask or know such a thing. He is the Admiral and we are his instruments." Didn't even skip a beat to retort.

Okay, this is _really_ not the first impression I was hoping to make on this beauty. I had thought I would say a few lines, she'd giggle and do that thing Japanese girls do and cover their mouths, and I'd be home free.

Obviously not the case. I needed to fix the situation quick.

"Okay, okay," I started, "I'm sorry. You're right. I hope to meet the Admiral soon and see why he has such great favor with you." While it's true that I was saying this to maybe edge myself into her good graces, I did mean it. I had hoped that the man commanding us would be a good leader, and it seems he was considering her reaction about my joke.

That or she was really close to the Admiral. I hoped it was the former, since the latter meant I had no chance with her.

However, as much as I enjoy trying to gauge my chances with Nagato, it was time to get to work.

"Speaking of the Admiral, I would appreciate a ride to the base so I could meet him personally." I stated.

I was answered by Nelson.

"Yes, yes, of course. We've got a couple trucks waiting to take your team to the barracks. However, you'll be coming with us to see the Admiral, as we're going to have our first task force meeting. So, leave your gear with your team, tell them the trucks will be here in five minutes and we'll be off."

I left my stuff with Louie and let them all know I'd be heading out to meet the brass. I was reluctant to leave them, but I left California in charge so I had little worry that they'd be fine.

I could've made Louie acting CO, but I chose to fuck with him instead.

The five of us commanders loaded into a western-style car, Nelson at the wheel, and head out into the streets surrounding the airfield.

* * *

The Admiral was... not quite what I expected, to say the least. But then again, I don't know the last time something came out as expected.

As opposed to the old, wise and hardened men like Nimitz you expect to see as an Admiral, this one was kind of the opposite. He was fairly short, probably five-seven or eight. In addition to this, he looked young, with an age that looked similar to mine so probably not much more than twenty-three, twenty-five at most. His hair was dark and cut close to his skin, and was hidden under his white peaked cap that was worn in unison with his white dress uniform.

I suppose the greatest shock came from his face though. Whereas many commanding officers I've served under had serious or annoyed faces pretty much all the time, the Admiral was unlike it in all ways. He seemed jovial and warm, and lacked the cold calculating look that most senior officers have.

We were all lined up in front of him, minus Nagato who stood by his side, and saluted. He quickly made a lazy, non-formal one back to us and motioned for us to take a seat on some very lovely looking chairs that were obviously set up for our arrival.

All of us, minus Nagato, took a seat lining the front of his desk. She opted to stand beside him as he sat in a worn leather office chair.

He didn't get out much, I figured.

He said something in Japanese, which Nagato translated as quickly as she could.

"The Admiral would like to welcome you to Okinawa, and thanks you and your nations for being a part of this great movement."

 _'Blah blah blah.'_ I thought, _'I hope that this isn't going to be a formality meeting, because there are sooo many things I'd rather be doing._ '

Yeah, yeah, I'm being really unprofessional and intolerable right now, whatever. You would be too if you had to meet with your superiors and the press and get the same sort of treatment for hours at a time once every couple of months.

"The Admiral apologizes for his inability to speak to you directly, but he hopes that I will suffice in his stead. Is English okay?"

I felt a bit bad about that. I know that this assignment just got sprung on me basically yesterday, so I had no feasible way to learn the local language, but it was a matter of courtesy and respect.

Nelson and I agreed of course, and Italia gave a curt nod, even though it wasn't her first language.

Bismarck, of course, was less than enthusiastic.

"Ugh, fine, if I must speak in such tongue than I will. But I don't understand why these brutes haven't learned the language already." She said motioning to Nelson and me.

Nelson took it in stride, and simply gave a regretful shrug and tilt of the head.

"Terribly sorry, my dear, but I never had any indication that I would need to speak anything other than the King's. I do, however, agree that not being to speak Japanese is a regretful side effect of that, especially when I'm part of this task force. I'll make a concerted effort in the future." He touched his hand to his heart in a meaningful gesture.

Jesus this guy was _really_ English.

I, however, wasn't made to be exceptionally polite and regal, and reacted accordingly.

"That was well put Nelson, and I agree. However I also think that the Fraulein over there also needs to stop trying to instigate over such a pointless thing." Not my greatest comeback, but it got the result I wanted.

"You dare say these things about me and not refer to me by my name?!" Bismarck stood as she yelled in my direction.

Superiority complex? Really? I thought they got rid of those after peasant rebellions and such.

I stood up as well, with, I admit, absolutely no intention of trying to deescalate things.

"Yeah, I do! And you know what else? I read your file, and you're not half the God-send you make yourself out to be!" She stood about eight feet from me, an easy distance to cross quickly, especially when you consider our abilities.

Nelson chimed in at this point.

"Montana, I do believe this is a bad way to make a first impression on our future co-workers." It was too late, I knew where this conversation was headed and I wanted to take it there.

By this point, Bismarck was tightening herself into a loaded position, making it clear she was ready for whatever happened.

I was ready too. Here we go.

"In fact, if you were such an amazing ' _Kriegsmarine_ ', why did you lose so many at the Frisians?" Hook.

"You are treading on some thin ice, you dog." She seethed through clenched teeth. Line.

"Why couldn't you save your own sister? Why didn't you save Tirpitz?" Sinker.

She lunged the eight foot difference in the time it would take to snap your fingers.

She came in low, planning to shoulder tackle me in the gut, but I managed to sidestep in time to give her a knee to the gut that would've shattered a normal man's spine and ribcage.

Of course, we aren't normal humans.

She took the knee with a grunt, and managed to snag onto my leg.

Shit. I forgot that just because she's a woman doesn't mean she isn't as strong as me. A lesson I've learned from California on more than one occasion.

She took my leg and pushed it back towards my body, causing me to lose my balance and fall on my back with her straddling my waist, ready to pummel my face.

A bad position for sure.

She cocked back and let loose the first punch which landed square on my nose, letting a short stream of abnormally bright blood flow down towards my mouth. She then followed it up with a hook across the left side of my face.

In the follow-through to that punch, however, I saw my opportunity.

I lunged with both hands, grabbing her outstretched right arm at the wrist and shoulder, and threw her off of me to the ground beside me. I shifted position so my knee was on her upper arm, pinning it to the ground.

At this point I reached out with my right hand to grab her forearm and pulled.

Not many people know this, but we still feel pain.

And a dislocated elbow hurts.

I heard Bismarck scream before the distinct _POP_ and she then screamed louder.

But she was a tough one, I gotta give her that.

She had somehow managed to lift her lower body up behind my head and hooked her legs around my neck and head.

Not a bad position to be in if we were lovers, but, sadly, we were fighting. And this is a very bad position to be in.

She threw me backwards and I found myself lying belly down with her on my back, hooking her good arm around my neck in order to put me to sleep, whether temporarily or permanently is anyone's guess.

I couldn't let this happen, so I stood up, her weight added to mine and was about to throw myself backwards when I heard a very loud slam come from the direction of the Admiral.

Both of us stopped and looked at him.

The jovial look was wiped from his face, and in it's stead were lowered eyebrows and a deep frown.

Bismarck hopped from my back and gave me a push, before exiting the room.

I watched her leave then looked at my face in a mirror located inside a display cabinet.

My nose was flattened, and she gave me another good wallop that already looked like it was going to seal my left eye shut if I didn't use my repair kit or see a technician soon.

A hand grabbed my shoulder and spun me around, where Nelson was waiting to give me another good punch to my gut.

"You really are daft, you know that?" He asked me as I was hunched over.

I nodded. Anything he could tell me I already knew.

Nelson sighed.

"Alright. Too late to stop what's already happened. Let's get you to the repair bay."

"What about her?" I said as I regained my breath from the punch and earlier choking.

"Italia's taking Bismarck to another bay located close-by. Thankfully there is enough Frogs here to require more than one repair bay, so we don't have to risk another fight by you two seeing each other." I was thankful for that. I definitely wouldn't underestimate her a second time, but I really did regret instigating the fight and hoped there wouldn't be a second time, even if I was sure I could take her easily.

Italia was already absent from the room, presumably having chased down Bismarck after she stormed out of the office. The Admiral sat at his desk with his head in his hands, shoulders slumped. I guess he realized how hard it was going to be managing all of us.

Nagato stood beside him still, and was staring hard at me with her arms crossed. She was obviously ticked off that I'd caused the Admiral such distress.

Yep, I'd say my chances with her are now next to none. Well, realistically they were zero, but I liked to hold out even a little possibility that I'd manage to make her forgive me through the use of my incredible charm and intellect.

But we have already seen how that ended once tonight.

Nelson hooked an arm around my shoulders and guided me out the office door.

"Come along, devil dog, let's get you patched up." Nelson, while obviously exasperated and disappointed, still managed to be courteous and polite.

Jesus it's like they rolled up an English stereotype and baked him inside another one to get Nelson.

We had gotten not much more than thirty feet from the office before I said to Nelson, "I just made things a lot more complicated didn't I?"

"My boy, in this life of not-entirely known species attacking humans on the open waters and the people made to embody the spirits of ships to fight them, I'd say it is pretty hard to make it more complicated." He said.

"But you managed to do it."

There was only one word I could say that could come close to expressing what I was feeling.

"Shit."


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Hey guys, got another entry coming in. Hope you've all been enjoying it so far.**

 **As always, please leave a review saying if you liked the story, hated it, and why, it'd be much appreciated.**

* * *

 **June 11th, 1942  
Okinawa**

My return to my team from the repair station the next day went about as well as can be expected. The technician had to drain fluid from the wound near my eye, so I had noticeable stitches on my face that weren't there the last time my team saw me.

They were concerned, even the cruisers to my surprise, but I told them not to worry about it.

I made a it a point to not tell them the reason behind the injury too.

California and Louisiana, however, were an exception.

It was still fairly early in the morning, probably six or so, but in proper military fashion everybody was awake and ready to take on the day. Lex had come to me and asked about our plan for the day, so I gave him a team workout to lead. It was in the middle of my instructions to Lex when the two battleships came.

"Hey Lex, that's not the whole workout but go ahead and get the team started. We need a minute." I nodded behind him to Cali and Louie.

He turned to see them, looked back at me and gave a salute before jogging to the center of the makeshift barracks.

"Alright Arks, we got work to do! Let's move!" Lex yelled in his best drill instructor voice. Now, Lex looked like a pretty calm, relaxing guy at all times. Never have I once heard him raise his voice in anger or talk behind someone's back. But I swear, even the most hardened of special forces soldiers would feel like children if they heard his drill voice.

The team, including Brent, emptied quickly, save for the three of us battleships.

We sat quietly for a while, Louie was the first to speak.

"Cut the shit Moe. What happened?" As always, he had a wonderful way of dancing around the issue.

"Not much. I made things complicated." They weren't having any of it.

California rolled her eyes, "Look Moe, we're trying to help. We can't exactly do that when we don't know what happened."

I didn't need any more convincing.

"Alright, look." I sighed. This definitely wasn't something I was proud of. "I got in a fight with one of the other commanders."

Louie chuckled a little and said, "No shit? Who was it? The Brit? I thought the limey looked ready for a scrap."

"No, no, he was actually pretty cool. It was the German, Bismarck." I respond.

Both of them looked at each other a bit before turning their attention back to me.

"For real?" I was surprised California would ask that, since she knows first-hand that even a woman could give me a good wallop. She was on the giving end of more than a few of those.

"Yeah, you're one of our best fighters." They were missing the point.

"Look, she got hers too but that doesn't matter. What matters is the fact that the person I fought happens to be the leader of our fellow teams."

"Yeah, yeah, sure but she deserved it right?" Louie was not moving past this fight.

"Yes! But like I said, this is probably going to shake things up for a while. We'll just need to keep our heads down for a while and do as we're told. The Admiral sent a messenger to the repair station while I was there to tell me that we'll be trying the meeting again today at 1200. So while I'm gone you two and Lex will be in charge. Just keep the team out of trouble and I'll be back later to give us some intel on our purpose here." I looked at both of them to gauge their response.

"Alright, sounds good. Sure you don't want any backup in case things heat up again?" Louie was getting anxious for a fight.

He'd get one soon enough if the task force was as important as I thought it was.

"Nah, I'll be fine. The other navies will probably bring more Arks to break us up anyway. As far as I'm concerned, this was just a mistake on my part, and I'll tell them as much."

Louie looked a little disappointed at my answer.

Cali, on the other hand, looked very satisfied.

"Yeah, I think that would be best. If you seriously believe that as much as I think you do, then the other commanders and the Admiral will have no choice but to accept it." Her genuinely caring nature was refreshing when compared to Louie's more brash approach.

"Well I just hope that the Fraulein is feeling the same way about this as I am." A bit of wishful thinking on my part. I'd known people like her back in the States, and they'd never apologize for something like this, especially when they think that they were right the entire time.

The two other ships only had my description of Bismarck to go on, but they seemed to echo my "wishful thinking" sentiments.

I sent both of them to get dressed in our PT gear and we headed out to meet our team, which was now mid workout. When Lex saw me he dropped from the lead position and dropped in line with the rest of them, and I led the remaining exercise.

* * *

We finished about two hours later, returning to our barracks to get cleaned up before finding some chow.

As opposed to what I'd seen of the other navies so far, our uniforms were all basically the same save for a few minor differences.

The basic uniform without any modifications consisted of a dark khaki cargo jacket over a brown shirt and a belt that contained equipment which would be useful outside of our rigs. We also had dark green cargo pants with boots. All of the clothing was made by weaving regular cloth with a sort of bulletproof material. The bulletproofing wasn't entirely useful considering our already durable nature and the uselessness of it in larger ship combat, but it did provide a degree of comfort, small as it may be. The cruisers wore this uniform, and were more than a little pissed when I told them that, no, they couldn't alter them in any way.

The carriers wore the uniform with their sleeves rolled up to their biceps to allow easier mounting of their flight decks. Bataan had made it abundantly clear in his typical annoyed voice that mounting decks with their sleeves down was uncomfortable and slowed his reaction time down. I understood his concerns, especially since Louie and I both had a catapult mounting for launching recon planes. I agreed, if only to get Bataan to stop whining, that the carriers could wear their uniforms this way. My brother and I would also wear our uniforms in this configuration, admittedly because we thought it looked cool.

The destroyers' uniforms were a bit of an issue. The basic uniform was characteristically heavy, and while it wouldn't affect their performance, it was still uncomfortable on their small bodies. Because of this, I allowed them to forgo the jacket and pants in favor of a brown shirt and green shorts with their belt. It gave them less coverage from the bulletproofing, but it allowed them more comfort and a higher range of mobility. Oddly enough, California also chose to wear this uniform. I was inclined to disagree, since she would need the extra protection considering her higher priority as a target. My qualms, however, were quickly dissipated when I finally saw her in the uniform though.

Yep, she knew that would work.

After we were dressed, I split the team up and allowed them to roam the base, as long as they kept out of trouble. All of the Arks agreed, but I could tell the cruisers were planning some mischief, judging by the malicious looks they got and the talking between themselves.

Okay, they're going to need a chaperon. And to his contempt, that would be Louisiana.

Cali and I both went out in search of a Mess, and we luckily found one that seemed to be made for the task force, as it was making a lot of international food and contained quite a few arks from the other navies.

Fortunately, one of these arks was Nelson.

Unfortunately, he was eating breakfast with Bismarck.

I decided to take a pass on eating with my fellow commanders, so Cali and I grabbed a couple trays of various breakfast foods and searched for a table. There wasn't one completely unoccupied, but we found a space in-between some British and Japanese Arks that I hadn't met yet. They fact that they scooted a bit away from us was not lost on me.

We sat in silence eating for a while, but I could feel the heat from multiple stares aimed at me from around the room. It was readily obvious that everyone knew I was the commander that had gotten in a fight, the stitches on my face and occasional glances from both Nelson and Bismarck confirmed as much.

I tried to shun their attention by paying no mind to it.

"Moe, let's get out of here. It seems we're not exactly popular right now." We had just barely sat down, but Cali had sensed the situation in the room and didn't like it. I wasn't exactly comfortable either, but I refused to be seen as weak now.

Typical macho bullshit I know.

"No. We searched for this place for nearly an hour, and I'm starving. We ain't leaving because some people are looking at us funny." That much was true, but I also had ulterior motives.

The tension in the room had died down after a while as California and I ate our breakfast, a delicious arrangement of eggs, toast, bacon and sausage as well as some amazing black tea.

The almost forgotten tension returned, however, when Bismarck stood from her seat and purposefully started making her way towards me. I saw Nelson grab her arm in an attempt to stop her, but she simply shrug it off and continued her walk.

Up to the point where she had started towards me, the Mess was filled with the sounds of chatting and the clinking of silverware against plates.

But the only audible thing in the hall now was the perfectly in-step clacking of Bismarck's boots as she made her way to me.

She stopped about five feet from me and crossed her arms.

If this devolved again, I didn't want to be caught sitting down, so I wiped my mouth and stood up to face her, clasping my hands in front of me.

Tables squealed as they backed away from us.

"Is there something you wish to say? Apologize perhaps?" As I had thought earlier, Bismarck seemed to think that she was in the right here.

She was partially correct in that she probably deserved an apology, but probably not for the reasons she thought.

"Yes... you deserve an apology." She got a smug look on her face as if she won and was humiliating me in front of a bunch of subordinates.

"I'm sorry that you are an intolerant bitch that thinks she is the best thing ever." Boy did that wipe the smug look off her face.

"Do you really wish to do this again?" She was probably referring to the fact that she was ready to fight again.

"Stop. I don't want to fight you, Bismarck." Okay, time to be serious.

She smirked.

"Afraid I'll best you again, dog?"

Okay, first off, she did not beat me in our fight. If anything, I'd call it a tie. And secondly, I was starting to wonder how such a tiring person could ever hold a position of authority, especially with such huge stakes on the line. I pinched the bridge of my nose, forgetting that it was still healing and managed to give myself a small wince from the pain.

"Bismarck, look, we don't like each other, and probably never will," She rolled her eyes as if that was an obvious conclusion, "but I hope that we can at least maintain a working relationship." I took a couple of slow steps forward, causing Cali to tense herself up, ready to jump to my aid.

I stuck my hand out in a handshake.

"I'm sorry for escalating things the way I did last night, but I'm not sorry for brawling with you. I hope you understand that." My words were genuine.

She continued to glare at me.

"You'll understand if I refuse to shake hands with the likes of you." And with that, she turned on her heel and left the Mess.

Always one for the dramatic it seemed.

The entire cafeteria watched her leave, then returned then eyes to me to see what I'd do.

They were disappointed when I merely returned to my seat and finished my breakfast. Though Cali's body language told me that she was ready to get the hell out of Dodge.

I had just finished my meal not much more than two minutes after Bismarck left, but as I was standing up to leave, a hand placed on my shoulder kept me still. I looked behind me to find Nelson standing there. He didn't say anything, he simply nodded and gave me a pat on the back before he went to the dirty dish rack and placed two trays.

Seems Bismarck refuses to even clean up after herself.

I took Cali's dishes as well as my own, piled them with the rest of the dirty ones and we made our way out of the Mess to return to our barracks.

* * *

When we got back it was already eleven-forty, so my ride to the Admiral's office was already there. Two people got out of the car as we approached our building, one of them was Nagato and the other was a Japanese man, which I immediately sensed as human. I told California to send out Brent. He was my administrative assistant, so he might as well be there with me to hear the situation.

I imagined being loaded into the car as being akin to being arrested, although without the physical confrontation.

The ride to the office wound through the small roads of the base, some of them not even being paved. It was a silent ride, as you can probably guess.

I caught Nagato glancing at me from time to time, and as much as I wanted to believe that it was because she was interested in me, I knew it was because she was warily watching me to make sure I wasn't a threat. I don't know why, it was only Bismarck I had a problem with. Everyone else I'd met so far had been generally pleasant, even if some of them lacked a sense of humor.

The car arrived at the office and we unloaded, minus the driver who took the car around back.

Nagato kept a brisk pace as she led us to the Admiral's office, where we found all of the other commanders waiting for us. The first thing I noticed, besides the fact that we were the last to attend, was the fact that the chairs were no longer together, and spread further apart through the room.

The reasoning behind such a seating arrangement was understandable, but it would make conversation a bit awkward. A necessary sacrifice for a better sense of security.

The second thing I noticed was the fact that there were too many people in the room, and the extra spectators were all women. By now I had caught on that the Japanese only had female Arks, so it stood to reason that they were extra security, another precaution. But a few of the women weren't even old enough to be women, they were girls, indicating that they were destroyers. If these girls were serving in a security role, they'd have no chance of stopping us if Bismarck and I decided to kick things off again.

In fact, of the eight extra people in the room, only two of them were obviously battleships, and another two were likely cruisers. Both of these pairs were likely sisters, given the resemblance in outfit. The battleships wore a sort of tweaked ceremonial gown, kind of like the ones worn by the shrine maidens I'd seen in pictures. The likely-cruisers outfits were... distracting, to say the least. Both wore a getup similar to a flight attendant, but they were so tight I thought they'd have trouble breathing. One's skirt was long enough to touch her calf, but didn't cover the front and very nearly showed her underwear, while the other instead wore a short skirt, short enough to show the straps of her garter.

Christ, it's going to be tough keeping a straight mind if all the women dressed this way.

The admiral nodded to an empty seat near a corner and one of the shrine maidens, so I took it, trying to look and act as calm as possible so as to not antagonize them. Brent stood beside me, hands together behind his back.

"Very well, now that we're all here, let's try this again." Nagato seemed as professional as ever. She said something to the Admiral and began to translate as he talked.

"Welcome to Task Force Divine Wind, or, _Kamikaze_. As you know, this task force is composed of detachments from the navies of Italy, Germany, the UK, the United States and Japan. The Soviet Union and France were also invited to join, but declined."

I had known about the Soviet Union's decision to not join, but I hadn't even thought and the French. They likely couldn't join due to sheer lack of manpower, since everyone was diverted to contain an amphibious invasion by the Abyssals. Word is they stopped making Arks and started a new project to develop a land-based Ark. Naval Arks were effective on land and sea, but their true potential could only be obtained on the water. France was aiming to change that.

A lost cause if you ask me. The invasion was going terribly for the defenders.

"Task Force Kamikaze was initiated for the sole purpose of an assault force. You will occasionally defend, but this group is meant to enact diversionary and decisive attacks on Abyssals and Abyssal locations."

Strong wording, as with all introductory briefings.

"The Imperial Japanese Navy is devoting all of it's assets to Kamikaze. We request that each of you submit a roster and resource provision by 1500. We will have another briefing tomorrow at 0800 for a review of the rosters, and also to discuss division of personnel and leadership roles." I sometimes have a tendency to be sucked back into reality when I space out, and boy, that sure as hell did the trick.

"Ma'am, if I may interrupt?" I said, briefly holding my hand up to pause her.

She nodded.

"Why are we splitting personnel? It seems counterproductive to have all these different Arks come out here to fight only to have them be split into a division they have no familiarity with." I chose to be serious in this situation, plenty of people already don't like me.

"The 'Arks', as you call them, are being put into divisions that would enhance their roles and capabilities within Kamikaze as a whole. Familiarity and comfort with this division is important, and therefore we are giving you time to train before we start sortieing." The answer was good enough, even if splitting my team up didn't excite me, so I nodded and let her continue.

"Now, if their are no more question, I'd like to introduce you to our guests." She made a sweeping motion with her hand to the shrine maiden standing closest to me and Brent.

"This is Kongo, nameship of the Kongo class." I turned to look at her, only to find her staring intently at me with blazing eyes. I found it a little uncomfortable, so I simply turned back to face Nagato.

' _What'd I do to piss her off?_ ' I thought. You didn't have to be a social expert to notice when someone is mad at you, especially when that someone makes no attempt to conceal their true feelings towards you.

"Over there, we have Atago and Takao of the Takao class." She pointed to the two women dressed like flight attendants.

They gave short bows, but I couldn't help but notice that their... "uniform" moved and bounced around whenever they moved.

' _Keep it together, man! You're a professional!_ ' Yeah, okay, thanks brain. These words of advice sure will keep my mind off those gorgeous ladies dressed in the most compromising way possible.

' _I'm a professional, I'm a professional, I'm a professional..._ ' I couldn't help but mentally repeat the words to calm myself.

"Standing by Nelson we have Ha-" Her words were cut off as my mind cleared itself.

The woman Nagato was introducing was another shrine maiden, but I didn't catch her name before my thoughts were completely devoted to this woman.

All of a sudden, Takao and Atago were ripped from my thoughts to be replaced by this nameless beauty.

I had noticed her when I entered the room, but I use the word "notice" in the sense that I knew the fact that she was there. I had just never _seen_ her until now.

I'd tell you how beautiful I thought this woman was, but it's hard to describe the thought process of a man when he's contemplating on if the woman he was looking at was the sun or moon.

Her face looked soft and calm, but was complemented by a smile that only the coldest bastard in the world could not smile back at. Her eyes were a shade of amber that I'd only ever seen in the most perfect of fossils, and her silver seemed to travel forever before ending at the small of her back.

As I was taking all of this in, Nagato said some more things that I couldn't be bothered to concentrate on, and all of a sudden everyone stood from their seats and started to make their way to the door and out of the office. I shook myself from my trance and also picked myself up to leave, Brent in tow.

I had just gotten out of the room when a hand grabbed my arm, causing me to turn around.

Kongo was there, looking as pissed as she was during the briefing.

I wasn't really surprised by the fact that she wanted to talk to me, the contempt filled gaze during an important briefing could tell you that much.

What really surprised me was the immediate headbutt she gave my forehead and nose.

My head reeled back from the blow and I took a step back before regaining my sense of balance and waved away the stars floating my head.

"I heard you gave the Admiral a tough time yesterday!" She put her fists on her hips and squinted her eyes at me as I squeezed my nose to slow the trickle of blood.

"Yep. I sure did. Sorry about that." Kongo had already headbutted me, it's not like she _didn't_ know I was a jerk last night.

"The Admiral and I are lovers, so don't even think of putting him in a bad mood or I'll really give you something to be sorry about." She turned around and marched out of the heavy wooden doors of the building

Straight to the point, I respected her earnest, but it's not like I was doing it just to make the guy's life mi-

Wait, did she say they were _lovers_? That is a... peculiar thing, to say the least, to reveal to someone in your second sentence of meeting them.

I looked up to raise my head and slow the bleeding down. She didn't break it, but since it was already broken last night it was still pretty sensitive the day after fixing it.

I heard another person come out of the office, but couldn't tell who it was. She let out a feminine gasp when she saw me.

"Montana-san? What's happened?" It was not a voice I recognized. She took a few steps towards me, so I decided to lower my head for a second to see who it was.

Of course, it was her. Shit, I still don't know her name.

Right, she asked me a question. Words! Remember how to use them!

"Oh nothing, just had a talk with Kongo." I removed my hand to check the blood flow to find it staunched.

"Onee-san did this?! Oh no, Haruna is really sorry. She must have heard about what happened last night. Haruna will talk to her, if you wish?" Her soft voice and genuine nature reflected her looks, and I couldn't help but just look at her and blinking.

"Montana-san?" She blushed under my gaze.

' _Speak, you idiot!_ ' Shut up brain!

I shook my head to clear it.

She referred to herself in the third person it seems. A small blessing, as it let me learn her name.

"What? Oh, no, don't worry about it Haruna, I probably deserved it anyway." I checked the blood flow once again and saw it returning, so I started searching for a cloth in one of my pockets.

I stopped once I noticed Haruna was holding out a white handkerchief to me.

I looked at her, only to see her smile and nod at the cloth for me to take it.

I reached for it, brushing my hand against hers. Her skin was soft, and but it wasn't warm like I expected. Instead, it was cool, and I couldn't help but hold my own hand there for perhaps longer than was actually appropriate.

"Are you sure? Blood doesn't come out of whites easily..." I was apprehensive.

"Please, use it! Haruna doesn't mind as long as it helps." That was enough to get the butterflies in my stomach moving.

Well, the butterflies that weren't already fluttering around in there.

"I really appreciate that, Haruna." Just as I had said that, Brent burst through the door.

"Moe! Come on, let's go! The driver is pissed and I can't tell what he's saying, but I bet it's because you're keeping him waiting!"

Oh fuck off Brent, can't you see I'm busy?

I sighed and looked to Haruna.

"When will I get to see you next?" I couldn't use one of my suave lines right now, the butterflies wouldn't let me.

"The Admiral has chosen Haruna to teach you! I'll see you everyday at lunch!" She says that with so much pride and enthusiasm it just about makes my heart burst.

I don't know what she'll be teaching me, but it was probably what Nagato was talking about in the time I was in a Haruna-induced haze.

"Okay then. I look forward to it." I flash her a smile and start to hand back the handkerchief before realizing it was spattered with blood.

"You don't mind me giving this to you later, do you?"

"No! Please, keep it. I look forward to tomorrow!" She raises a clenched fist and gives me a winning smile before graciously spinning around hurrying back to the Admiral's office.

I stood watching her leave and a little after she was gone before a hand reached around and grabbed my shoulder.

"One of the leaders of the world's most important group in history and you can only thinking about picking up girls." Brent sighed and gave me a teasing punch in the shoulder as he led me out the building door.

I knew he was wrong though.

I had been with other women before, not often I'll grant you, but this was different.

To me, Haruna felt like something else


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: I'm sorry guys, I read through my last chapter and noticed it had a number of grammatical errors. In my defense, I was extremely tired from a swamped week of work, but I hate submitting something when it's in a condition like that, so I'll be putting more effort to proofreading in the future. I apologize to** **anyone that had a tough time reading or was disappointed in the quality.**

 **Side-note, my laptop seems to finally be slowing down from four years of heavy use, and the internet here in East Texas is pretty unreliable sometimes, so writing may be harder until I get back to my desktop after summer.**

 **Anyway, back to the story.**

 **As always, I appreciate any feedback you leave, whether it's to say the story is good or bad.**

* * *

 **June 12th, 1942  
** **Okinawa**

The previous night passed like a blur after I returned to the barracks. My teammates would ask me questions regarding our plan for the task force and I would answer them, but all I could think about was Haruna.

The way she tilted her head when she smiled, the endearingly cute way she referred to herself in the third-person, and of course her beautiful face. It seemed as if all the parts of my brain that were capable of rubbing two neurons together were completely enraptured with her.

The morning was worse, because now my brain could only think of Haruna and the fact that I was going to see her again in a few hours.

I led a light workout before sending everyone off to find something to do.

The fact that I was a military officer and I just told a bunch of highly specialized and effective fighters to find a way to waste time was not lost on me. This meeting had better put us to work immediately, because the team was very obviously bored. I mean, the cruisers were actually _talking_ to the destroyers. Not making fun of them, but actually socializing.

It did make me a little proud, but I knew that their conversations were born from a lack of entertainment rather than wanting to reconcile.

Another small vehicle obviously sent to retrieve me pulled up to the barracks just as Brent and I were going to grab a quick bite before the meeting. We tried to tell the driver that the Admiral could wait twenty minutes, but this was met by a blank stare and silence. Any attempt to bypass the car was responded to by the driver following us from the road as we walked on the sidewalk.

We didn't want him to follow us with that stare and creepy demeanor for duration of our outing, so with no other choice, we begrudgingly got into the car and left for the admin office.

Please, for the love of God, let there be food at this meeting.

* * *

The two of us walked into the office again in what was beginning to feel like a routine.

I was elated to discover that the Admiral's office was re-purposed into a dining room, all of our places marked around a large table with our nationality and name.

They even marked a place for Brent, I noticed.

Nobody besides Nagato and the Admiral were in the room yet, both sitting what I would consider uncomfortably close together, but they didn't seem to mind the distance.

 _'Yes! Not the last one's here! Can't give me shit this time, Bismarck!'_ I allowed myself a small mental victory.

Elated as I was, though, I still found this a bit unusual. I checked my watch to discover that it was still only seven forty-five, so Brent and I were definitely early. I paid no mind to it though, and simply took my seat, listed next to Italia.

So far, I hadn't gotten to know her at all really, so this would be a good opportunity to build some bridges.

Nagato and the Admiral were conversing in Japanese, so I couldn't follow what they were saying. It was obviously an animated conversation though.

Brent's table setting was next to mine, so he took a seat. He looked around for a little, I guess for the food. It wasn't there, unfortunately, but I assumed it was because we were waiting on the other commander before starting the meal. Brent and I chatted while we waited.

Italia and her assistant, I didn't know her name, were the next to arrive. Both of them gave a respectful bow of the head to the Admiral, who waved them in.

She nodded to me as she took the seat to my right, and I give her a small smile and wave in response. Her assistant took the seat on the unoccupied side of Italia.

"Good morning!" I said cheerfully. As I said, I hardly knew anything about Italia so I was eager to learn.

"To you as well, Montana. I admit, I was a little surprised to see you here first." Italia replied.

"Yeah, they brought us in pretty early. Any idea why?" I asked.

"Well... yes, they said we'd be having breakfast at the briefing today. Do you not remember?"

Ah, so that was at least one of the things Nagato was talking about when I was thinking of Haruna.

"Oh right, of course. It surprised me a little, the fact that we'd be having a meeting over food, but I'm not against a little informality during these sorts of things. Guess the Admiral isn't the same kind of commander I would get back in the States" I shrug my shoulders.

"Yes, I agree. The higher-ups from my nation are very traditional, and couldn't ever do anything without ceremony." She took a sip from a small espresso one of the small ship-girls brought her. The girl looked at me as if to ask if I wanted anything, but I waved her off. I found it odd that other Arks would be waiting on us rather than some humans, but I didn't mind.

Brent got up from his seat and sat next to Italia's assistant, and began chatting with her. The assistant could speak English, but it was fairly accented, so their conversation progressed slowly.

"Montana, I'd like to ask you a question, if you'd find it acceptable." She placed her hands on her lap and turned towards me.

"Of course." I clasped my hands together and shift my body in my seat to face her.

"Why did you feel the need to bring up Tirpitz?" She kept a straight face, not a single crease of emotion as she asked me this.

I sighed.

KMS Tirpitz, along with a few other German Arks, was killed at the Frisian islands during the earlier stages of Ark-Abyssal combat. The Germans were convinced that their creations would easily overpower and overwhelm any opposition they faced, and in the few battles they had already fought, that had seemed to be the case. The problem, though, was the fact that German Arks had up to that point only fought small to medium numbers of lighter class ships. Bismarck and Tirpitz could have faced those ships alone and still won. But at the Frisians, they no longer faced a few destroyers and cruisers. They ran into multiple battleship-class and carrier-class Abyssals, enough that it would be a problem for even an experienced and balanced fleet of strong Arks.

The Germans, however, saw differently.

They sent in two mixed divisions of heavy cruisers and destroyers, led by Bismarck and Tirpitz. No carriers were sent to support them, which was the admiralty's biggest mistake.

Upon realizing their mistake, which came at the lives of three destroyers and a cruiser, German commanders ordered the Arks to retreat. It was during this retreat that Tirpitz's already weakened division was encircled and destroyed.

Bismarck and her division were close enough to assist, but were ordered to continue retreating.

The admiralty could tolerate losing one of their flagships, but not both.

"Italia, as you get to know me, you'll realize that I'm not a good person. I played that card to anger Bismarck enough to fight me. I wanted to show her that I wouldn't take that attitude from her." I had been looking in her eyes up to that point, but I now looked towards the ground.

She let out a very small and quiet laugh, and I looked up to see that her normally stoic and unreadable face had a closed smile on it.

"You are like my sister, Roma. She suffers from the same mentality that you do." She leaned closer to me from her seat.

"If I am honest, I do not care much for Bismarck. She is too hot-headed for my tastes, and lets her opinions and beliefs affect her work. Seeing her brought down a peg was amusing, but I realize that it was wrong. From what you say, it is easy to tell that you regret what you did, but I struggle to see if you are serious. I look forward to finding this out as we work together, Montana. You intrigue me." She leaned back in her chair.

Wow, that was much more than I expected to get from her.

The remainder of the time we spent waiting was made easier by sharing stories about the places we'd been. Hers were surprisingly humorous.

Bismarck arrived next with a girl that looked similar to herself, but was shorter and her hair was done into two pigtails that rested on her shoulders. Prinz Eugen, if I remembered the name on her file. The two of them took their seats near the admiral on the other side of Italia, a conscious decision to keep us separated I guessed.

Eugen gave a slight smile to Italia and I upon sitting down, but Bismarck did not acknowledge our presence.

Nelson was the last to arrive, entering the room with a woman that was barely shorter than him and white hair that covered one of her eyes. She wore a headpiece with a single antenna angled slightly forwards.

"Sorry chaps, had to gather the missus before we left." He said it with a smile as he gave the woman a pat on the back.

She did not visibly respond.

The two took their seats to Brent's left, Nelson pulling out the woman's seat and letting her sit before taking his own place.

I checked my watch again to see that Nelson was, indeed, a few minutes late. Not very prim and proper, but fashionably late I suppose.

Nagato stood up bowed before speaking.

"The Admiral and I thank you for coming. As we discussed yesterday, today's meeting will be had after a meal. We hope you don't mind food from your respective nations."

Quite the contrary, actually, I welcomed the reminder of home.

Nagato said something in Japanese, and a woman walked through the office door in response.

' _There she is..._ ' The woman that walked through the door was known by everyone, whether they be military, civilian, Ark or human.

She was possibly the greatest of us made for a while.

It was Yamato.

She stood just a bit taller than me, with her long brown ponytail reaching far below her head. The outfit she was wearing was gorgeous. In general, she was amazingly beautiful.

But while this much was true, I did not view her beauty in the same way I saw Haruna's. This beauty likely came from my respect from her.

Yamato and her sister, Musashi, were created to be Japan's ultimate answer to the Abyssals. The strongest and most powerful Arks ever created.

Well, until the United States built me and my siblings. The US couldn't stand for the Japanese to have this awesome power and not get a slice. While we aren't more powerful than Yamato and Musashi, individually we are nearly identical in terms of power.

Yamato bowed her head to the room and said, "Welcome to Okinawa. I am Yamato. I look forward to working with all of you. For now I wish you would accept the food I made for all of you." Her English was basic, and said slowly.

She stepped to the side, where a couple of destroyers rolled in a few carts loaded with what I assumed were covered plates of food.

A young girl with black bangs and a ponytail rolled a cart up to Brent and me, and placed a covered tray in front of each of us. She took each cover off.

In front of me was a juicy steak, over-easy eggs and homestyle potatoes with cherry tomatoes. Brent got biscuits and gravy with a side of hashbrowns, sausage and toast.

I looked around the table and every occupant had a breakfast in front of them that either originated from their home country or was popular there. Nelson had a full English with beans, pudding, bacon, the works, and Italia had a simple fruit salad with yogurt and rolls.

Now, I'd like to say that in this professional setting, I handled myself with proper manners and dignity.

But I'd be lying.

I scarfed down the rare steak and scrambled eggs like I was a recruit just getting back from PT in boot camp.

Do I regret it? Hell no. It was too delicious for me to care about manners. The other leaders didn't fare much better than me anyway, I noticed.

Yamato and her staff of destroyers stood silently at the entrance to the office as they waited for us to finish. Well, Yamato stood quietly, I noticed the destroyers try to gossip silently to each other.

"I must say Yamato, you cook a better English than most English!" Nelson was wiping his mouth as he said that.

She bowed, and motioned for the younger girls to get to work clearing the table.

The table cleared, and the server girls left with their carts filled with empty dishes. Yamato bowed once more and left the room.

Nagato stood once again and the Admiral shared a look with her. He began speaking with her translating.

"We've received all of your rosters and provision requirements. You will all be approached at a later date about how provisions will be fulfilled, but for now we will discuss the breaking up into divisional fleets and your first assignment. Now, from the UK, we've received fifteen ships. The Kingdom of Italy has offered ten, Germany brought twenty, and the US has brought fourteen. All nations have promised more units if Kamikaze shows results. France has also promised all of it's naval assets if we can assist in the defense of France against the Abyssal invasion currently happening there. Therefore, that will be our first mission."

I was a bit confused at first. Kamikaze was Japanese led, so one would assume that our first missions would be taking place near the home islands. Then again, this Admiral has proven to be an odd one. I wasn't against the idea, as more personnel makes our job easier. There was just one rather large question.

"Ma'am, will the defense be on land or sea?" I slightly raised my hand and asked my question at the same time.

"Both, Montana."

Hmm, this would be interesting.

"The first phase of the plan is to destroy any opposition on the sea that is providing support to the invasion force. While this is going on, we will simultaneously drop a small amount of KanMusu into human held territory to assist in ground defense. The second phase is to drive out the remaining Abyssal ground forces from France. From there, we'll then have enough personnel and supplies to conduct operations on a global scale." She looked at me.

"Montana, we have been told that you conducted ground operations in the Philippines?"

I nodded. "Yes ma'am. I was part of MacArthur's assault force in the retaking of the Luzon and Panay." One of my first assignments. At first the operation was regarded as perhaps a turning point in the war, but that was before the casualty reports were publicly known.

A costly mission with little payoff.

"Good. In that case, you will be team leader for the ground force in phase one. Here is your briefing packet. Please read it thoroughly." She slid a manila folder across the table to me.

I reached onto the table and grabbed it.

"As Montana and his forces will be in France, the rest of Kamikaze including command staff will be in England at Cornwall. A small team will be left here, but it won't be more than ten ships."

Nelson spoke. "Miss Nagato, you spoke about team division? I'd like to know so I can train them and prepare for the operation."

Nagato nodded. "Certainly." She handed everyone a folder except for me, which I already had.

"Inside you'll find the members of your new division, which each of you will be leading. There is also a list of your current subordinates' new team leaders. You will also find your roles for the coming operation."

Nelson and Bismarck both looked in their folders and intently started reading. Bismarck made an annoyed face as she scrolled over some of the names, but she didn't say anything.

"Any questions?"

No one said anything.

"The operation will take place in one week, sooner if it's obvious France will fall before then. Get to work." Nagato clapped her hands together and the team leaders and their assistants got up from their seats to file outside.

"Montana, a word?" Nagato was still standing by the Admiral.

I looked at Brent.

"Go on, I'll be out in a bit." He nodded in response, but looked at Nagato warily as he walked out.

I stood before the Admiral at attention.

"The Admiral wishes to apologize for Kongo yesterday."

Huh. I mean, it's not like I didn't appreciate it, but I've just never had a CO that would apologize for one of his subordinates.

Then again, Kongo did say that they were _lovers_ , so convention kind of goes out the window.

"Just so you know, the Admiral and Kongo are not in relations, contrary to what she may believe."

"Ma'am, it's no big deal. I do have a question though." I stood stock-still as I say this.

"Please." She says in response.

"Haruna was assigned to teach me, but if I'm honest I did not catch what about." I was admitting my error.

"All team leaders have been assigned an IJN KanMusu to tutor them in the Japanese language. Bismarck and Italia will not need one, but both you and Nelson don't know the language and did not reject the idea. Your sessions will be three hours everyday at 1200, and meet in the base's records building." She didn't even blink when I told her I wasn't listening.

I check my watch, it's 1025. Good, that gives me just enough time to get back to the American barracks to read my briefing as well as spread the news of our operation.

I give a quick salute to the two of them before walking out of the office building with Brent to find our car.

We saw it sitting in the parking lot with the driver reading a book so we started towards it.

"Hey Moe, they talked about you guys and all but, uh, what about me?"

Shit, hadn't thought about that.

"You're part of the command staff, plus you're human. You'll probably be going to Cornwall with the rest of them." I wasn't sure of my words, but I made it sound like I was.

"Shit, man. I wanted to be on the ground with you." He says this in a way that makes me doubt him.

"Then why did you join the Navy and not the Army or Marines?"

He rolls his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, sail the seven seas, all that bullshit. Look Moe, I joined the Navy to fight, but I haven't done shit. Come on man, will you take me?"

I stopped walking.

"Brent, have you seen an Abyssal ground troop?" I looked at him with purpose.

"Well yeah, they show 'em on the news films back at base. Why?" He cocked his head and squinted his eyes.

"No, no, they only show the dead ones that are so pulped up you can't recognize them. I mean a live and fighting Abyssal soldier. Have you seen one?"

"Well... no I guess not." Brent brings his hand to his chin, "Where are you going with this, Montana?"

"I have seen them alive Brent. And I've seen what they can do. You don't want to be there." I was almost pleading.

"Y-yeah. Okay, man. Whatever you say."

I started walking again and got in the back of our car as the driver put his book down. Brent entered a few seconds after.

The driver put the car into gear and we were off.

* * *

Back at our barracks I sat on my bunk and read through the briefing. I was to take eight other Arks into the front-lines near Paris where we would meet up with the French army and their commanders. We'd be attached to the army and under command of the French until Phase One was complete. I didn't approve of this, but I made note of the fact that I was given permission by the Admiral to use my own discretion on what orders to follow and which to not.

All the Arks to be under my command had at least some ground training and equipment, so my job was a bit easier. I would still have to brief them and drill them a bit though.

Speaking of the Arks under my command, I had:

IJN Jintsuu, Light Cruiser  
IJN Takao, Heavy Cruiser  
Roma, Battleship  
KMS Scharnhorst, Battleship  
KMS Graf Spree, Heavy Cruiser  
HMS Unicorn, Carrier  
USS Phoenix, Light Cruiser  
USS Lexington, Carrier

Takao, Unicorn, Graf and Lex were trained as normal infantry, so they'd be using kits similar to an infantryman from their respective nations. The difference was the fact that while our weapons were similar in appearance to a human's, the caliber was improved so we could fight just about anything. We couldn't use our naval guns, so this would have to do. Roma was also an infantryman, but could also operate the long-range backpack radio. Jintsuu was a qualified sniper, so she'd improve our long range capabilities. Scarnhorst and I were both machine-gunners, so we'd bring an up-caliber MG42 and BAR respectfully.

Phoenix was different.

She was a sapper, therefore our demolitions expert. But an explosion fetishist wasn't enough, oh no, she had to be even crazier.

Her main weapon was a flamethrower. I tried to get her to reconsider, but to no avail. The psycho's weapon just had to be connected to her name.

After reading through my briefing, I decided to see where the rest of my team would be heading.

Louisiana was being sent to Italia, which was good. I could trust him to keep a cool head there. Italia was also getting Quincy, Cotten and Bell.

California was picked up by Bismarck. Not so good, even if I did know she could weather the storm of abuse she'd likely receive. On top of that, Bismarck would also take Baltimore, Izard, Young and Rooks. She was getting a lot of Americans, which would explain the sour look on her face after reading the list this morning.

Bataan and Montpelier were going to Nelson. Just two of my guys, so he's probably getting a bunch of other nations' Arks.

I got the team together to tell them their new assignments as well as the upcoming operation. Louie just shrugged as he learned where he'd be heading, but I could tell that Cali was more than a little apprehensive about working with Bismarck. Lex looked content with working with me, and Bataan was relieved when he learned they wouldn't be in the same division. The cruisers were pissed that they had been completely split up, but got over it once I told them that they'd be able to mess with even more people now.

Irresponsible, I know.

The destroyers were sad that they were also breaking up, but at least they still had one of the other destroyers to be with in their new division.

I sent everyone off to do whatever it was they were doing before I interrupted them, but Cali stayed behind.

She approached me.

"Cali, look, there really isn't anything I can do about this. I just need you to bear it and look out for the other guys while you're there." I answer before she can say anything.

She gets a confused look. "What? Oh, yeah, sure, I know. But there is something else."

She looks around to see if anyone is watching, which a couple are. She instead grabs my hand and pulls me outside.

"What's all this about Cali?" I was genuinely confused.

"Did I hear you right about going to France?" She asks.

I still had no idea where she was going with this conversation so I just answered her.

"Yeah, about thirty miles West of Paris. Why?"

Her eyes beamed.

"Moe! You have to get me something!" She just about started hopping up and down.

"Alright, alright! Jeez, calm down, you're acting like one of the destroyers."

She put her hands on her hips and pouted.

"What's wrong with the way I act, eh?" She leaned forward and cocked her hips to the side in a manner most sensual.

I gulped.

"O-oh, n-nothing. It's perfect the way it is." It was the only sane thing I could say.

She gave me an amazing smile, perfectly aware of why she just won.

"Make sure it's nice, okay? But not too expensive." She turned on her heel and went back into the barracks.

I sighed as I rubbed the back of my head, the blush on my face starting to go away.

I liked Cali a lot, she was one of my best friends, a sister almost.

But did I like her in a romantic way? I don't really know. I would never get tired of looking at her, and we knew each other well enough that conversation was easy and comfortable, but romance? I just didn't know.

Plus, I was already infatuated with Haruna.

Speaking of Haruna, it was time to go.

* * *

I walked to where I recalled the records building was and entered. The clerk was there, and upon seeing me he simply pointed his thumb over his shoulder in a motion I assumed meant to head to the back.

I did so and found that the inside of the building was not unlike libraries I had been in. There were tables in the center of the room with bookshelves and filing cabinets lining the walls. I searched around for a while before looking at my watch.

 _'12:16, I'm late. Or she is..._ ' I thought.

I searched around for a bit longer, still not finding Haruna.

There were small rooms at the far end of the library area, so I went there. The first room had a couple of sailors writing letters, so I moved to the next.

Before I opened, the door, I heard a faint breathing noise coming from inside.

 _'Someone asleep?'_

I gently opened the door and stuck my head inside.

She was there.

Haruna sat in a chair next to the window looking out at the green fields, a small journal and pen in her hand, but she was sound asleep.

I must've stood in the doorway for a couple minutes before snapping out of it and gently closing the door behind me.

There was a table in the middle of the room with a few chairs at it, so I sat in one facing her.

Now what I'm about to tell you will sound creepy, because, I admit, it is.

I watched her sleep.

For ten whole minutes I watched this beauty doze away, all the while I just sat and watched her gently breathe and occasionally murmur to herself.

Her journal fell out of her hand, waking her up.

She blearily notice me and jumped from her chair, fully awake and aware.

She clutched her chest.

"M-M-Montana-san! When did you get here?! Oh no, did Haruna fall asleep?! I'm sorry!" She bows deeply.

"N-No! It's nothing like that Haruna! You're okay. In fact, I should be apologizing to you, since I scared you heh-heh." I knew I was blushing hard, but she was too.

She remained in her bowing position, but raised her head.

"Y-,you should?"

"Yeah! Not only did you fall asleep because I was late, I scared you when you woke up..." I nervously rubbed the back of my head and looked out the window.

I heard the ruffling of her outfit, and I turned back to look at her only to see her face mere inches from mine, eyes closed with a big smile gracing her features.

I flinched back out of surprise.

"That's okay Montana-san. But don't do it again!" She gives me a playful wiggle of her finger as if lecturing me.

Opportunity!

"But it was nice watching you sleep." This was a risky move. She could see it either in the sense that I enjoyed creepily stalking her, or that I thought she looked cute when she was asleep.

"Really? Why?" Or she could be clueless as to both reasons. I guess that was the third option.

Whatever, I'll roll with it.

"Because you're really pretty, Haruna." I gently smiled.

She blushed again and brought a hand to her chest again. "Montana-san, you mustn't say those things when you don't mean them..."

The butterflies that were already fluttering about inside me doubled their efforts.

Not only was she beautiful, kind, genuine and helpful, she was humble. My heart can only take so much.

"I do mean it!" I say that with a bit more force than I meant to as I lean forward in my chair, placing my hands on the table.

There was a moment of silence between us as we make brief eye-contact before averting our gazes.

I lean back to a normal sitting position in the chair.

Haruna broke the silence first.

"Well, let's get to work!" She clenched a fist a brought it up.

I sighed. "Yea, let's do it."

I was never keen on learning, but with a teacher like Haruna, I'm sure I wouldn't mind.

* * *

The three hours went by quickly it seemed, as if it were just three minutes.

Haruna and I were making our way out of the building.

"You've already made great progress, Montana-kun!" She changed my honorific, but I hadn't learned what any of them meant yet.

"I'm glad I have such a great teacher. I would've been done with a lot of my training in half the time if you were there." She had a way of inspiring me to work hard.

"Montana-kun, you must always try your hardest, in battle or in the classroom." She brought her hand up in a fist again.

"I will, Haruna, I will. But I'm going to, you have to promise me that you'll always do your best too."

"Haruna promises!" She brings her hand up and extends her pinky.

I can't help but laugh and smile, and intertwine my own pinky with hers.

We continue to walk side-by-side outside of the building, idly chatting before reaching my barracks.

"Haruna, I've been meaning to ask you, what division are you in?" I turn my head to look at her.

"Oh, Haruna was placed in Bismarck-san's division. People say she is mean, so Haruna hopes to change that!" She seems to do the clenched fist thing whenever she is determined, since she's doing it again.

This worried me.

Haruna was the sweetest thing I'd ever met, and Bismarck was the most sour. I'd hoped their personalities wouldn't clash, but with someone like Bismarck it seemed inevitable.

"I want you to be nice to her, okay? But if she gives you any gruff, I want you to tell me about it and I'll sort her out." Haruna looked a bit disappointed in my response.

"Haruna doesn't want anyone to get hurt because of her..." She said it in a voice so tiny that the busy street nearly made it inaudible.

"Montana-kun, make Haruna another promise!" She stopped walking and turned to face me.

"What is it?" I ask.

"Promise you'll never hurt anyone unless you absolutely have to!" She places her hands together at her chest.

That was a loaded promise. I want to do anything I can for Haruna, surely. But committing to something like that would be hard for me, considering my sometimes short fuse and the current situation we live in.

But like I said, I want to do anything I can for Haruna.

I don't say anything, I just raise my hand with my pinky extended.

She returns the gesture, and we share a moment looking in each other's eyes as we held that pose for a second.

We break away.

"Well, this is me." I gesture to the barracks. "See you tomorrow?"

"Yes! Haruna looks forward to it!" She waves goodbye and takes off running towards the Japanese barracks of the base.

I watch her make her way down the street for a few seconds before she is lost in the bustle of people going about their business.

I walk into the barracks.

* * *

About an hour later at four the barracks empties as the Arks head out for orientation at their new divisions. I stay because my new team is coming to me. Lex and Phoenix stay as well.

They arrive in groups by the nationality, British, Japanese, Italian, German in that order.

Unicorn is the girl from the meeting earlier, the one that was with Nelson. I give her a nod in acknowledgement and point her towards the small lounge where the two other Americans are already.

Jintsuu and Takao arrived a few minutes later. I recognize Takao from yesterday, but I'd only seen Jintsuu in passing. She looked like a young woman, probably high school age, and wore her hair up behind a bandanna.

 _'Sniper training?'_ The bandanna would keep the hair out of her eyes, so I agreed with the thought. I sent them to the lounge as well.

Roma, our sole Italian, came in about ten minutes later. She looked similar to Italia as they were sister-ships, but had dark hair and wore spectacles. I offered her the lounge, but she decided to wait with me.

Graf Spree and Scharnhorst were the last, clocking in around four-thirty.

Graf was a woman, similar to Takao in height and bust but more conservatively dressed in her grey and black infantry uniform. She had dark hair instead of the characteristically blonde or white I'd seen on most German Arks.

Scharnhorst, on the other hand, embodied this nature to the fullest.

He was very tall, probably six-seven, and had the bluest eyes and buzzed blonde hair. He was also very muscular, though muscles on an Ark weren't really an indication of anything since we all had immense strength.

He didn't talk much.

I sat everyone down in the lounge and gave a run-down of the mission. I got about halfway before Graf had a question.

" _Herr_ Montana, apologies for interrupting, but I must say that this mission already seems lost."

She was not the only one with that opinion, believe me.

"Graf, you may be right. In fact I lean more towards your side of this. But we've been given this mission and we're _going_ to see it through."

She shrugged.

I continued the run-down.

"Estimations of Phase One length are not concrete, but the shortest possible amount of time we'll be there without relief is likely two weeks." Grumbles were heard throughout the room.

"I know, I know. That's why we just have to get in there and get our job done while we wait for the others to do their part. Now, I've read all your files, and I know that you're all capable for this mission. However, we'll still have a few days of team building and drills before I say we're good to go. We green?" I looked at all of their faces as they also looked at one another and nodded.

"Alright then. Get your asses out of here and get something to eat. We have drills tomorrow at 1100, be here at 1045. Full gear." My new team stood from their couches and left the room.

 _'Been awhile since the last ground Op. I'm ready for it. It's time to get back to fucking work.'_

I pumped myself up a bit before heading to my rack and started making preparations for tomorrow and the days after before we jumped into France.


	5. Chapter 5

**As always, a review saying if you liked the chapter or hated it and why is greatly appreciated.**

* * *

 **June 17th, 1942  
Okinawa Airfield  
**

We got the call to move out.

Kamikaze was originally scheduled to leave on the nineteenth, but things were looking increasingly grim in France. The Abyssals had broken through the defensive lines established at Orleans and Caen, and were now in operational range of Paris. I had seen almost the same situation in the Philippines, and the outcome was definitely in the "Never let happen" section of shit to go down.

We couldn't let the same thing happen to France. I'd seen the things the Abyssals do to their prisoners.

It was about noon, and the island was experiencing one of it's occasional rolling summer storms. Not ideal weather for flying, but we had no other choice. We needed to leave _now._

My newly-assembled team sat with the rest of the Arks in a hangar as we waited for our turn to load up.

They were a good bunch, I had come to the conclusion. They were accurate shots, took orders well and followed them to a 'T'. But that is not to say that they didn't improvise when the plan went to shit. A good trait to have in this line of work.

The team got along well, which I was immensely thankful for. This surprised me though, as I thought the German members would be more of an issue. This couldn't be farther from the truth. Scharnhorst of course rarely said anything, but he regularly helped during drills and everyday tasks. And Graf was great, too. She had a great sense of humor with just about everything, and always made it easier when things were feeling heavy.

I suppose my apprehension with them came from my dealings with Bismarck, which is unfair. Can't let one bad apple spoil the bunch.

A few of the ships were chatting, but many of them were quiet as they waited to leave.

I sat off to the side of the hangar near one of the large metal walls. Louie's plane and his division had already left, but Cali sat with me and kept me company.

We engaged in sporadic conversation about many things, ranging from what I'd get her in France to when I thought we'd be back to Okinawa. Not an engaging conversation, but it was enough to pass the time.

Cali was in the middle of describing her idea of the perfect day in Paris when she stopped mid-sentence and looked over my shoulder.

"Oh. Seems we have a visitor. Hello, Haruna. How are you?" Cali was a bit confused at Haruna's sudden arrival, but was polite about the intrusion.

"California-san! It is very nice to see you. Haruna thinks you are looking particularly pretty today." Haruna tilted her head as she said that.

I didn't say anything, but I watched the both of them through this interaction. I wasn't worried about a cat-fight of course, I just wanted to see the two women in my life interact with each other.

"Haruna is very sorry for interrupting, but she wishes to speak with Montana-kun. If you don't mind, of course." Haruna blushed and looked towards the ground.

Cali looked at me in a confused way, then back at Haruna.

"Y-yeah. Sure, Haruna." She stood up. "I should go check with Bismarck about our departure anyway. I'll see you on the plane, and I'll see you," She pointed at me, "In a few weeks when you got me my present."

She smiled and gave a wave before making her way through the seated crowd to find Bismarck.

I had stood up when Cali left, but since she took her bag with her, there was now no longer a seat for Haruna.

"Here, sit on my duffle. I'm fine with being on the floor." I pushed the bag I'd been sitting on towards her to give her a place to relax.

"No, no, Haruna could never take Montana-kun's seat..."

I cut her off by sitting on the concrete before she could protest more.

Over the time I'd learned more about her by spending our tutoring time together, I'd also realized that Haruna's humble personality could get in the way of things I wanted to do for her. My solution so far had been to simply disregard her protests.

She kept standing for a short while before taking the makeshift seat.

"So what's up?" She seemed taken aback by my question.

"I mean, you wanted to talk to me, right?"

She didn't respond and continued to look at the floor. One hand was holding her opposite arm, a means of self-assurance it seems.

"Montana-kun, I wanted to ask you something..." She broke her third person habit.

Haruna needed to express herself, so I didn't say anything to break her train of thought.

"You'll be safe, right? While you're in France, I mean."

While our time spent together did make us closer, I would be cautious in calling us friends. Acquaintances was a more appropriate term for us at this point I thought.

Because of that, her concern for me was surprising.

"Uh..." I scratched the back of my head.

"I really like teaching, so I don't want you to get hurt and I can't do it anymore!" She looked from the ground to my eyes, the blush gone from her face, more determined now than nervous.

' _So that's what this is about?'_ I chuckled to myself with that thought.

"Haruna, I'll tell you right now that I won't let anything stop me from attending your Japanese lessons." I gave a smile.

She sighed in relief.

"Ah, good, Haruna was worried." She relaxed her tense posture and slumped a little in her seat.

"Was that all you're worried about? Not being able to teach anymore?" I asked.

The blush returned to her face.

"W-w-well, I might be a l-little worried about you too..." Her gaze dropped to the hangar floor once again.

"You're Haruna's friend. She doesn't want her friends to get hurt."

Her view about our relationship staggered me a bit. I certainly wasn't against us being friends, but to hear her say it for the first time made my heart leap.

"Haruna, listen." I leaned forward and placed my hand on hers.

She flinched a little.

"Even if I get hurt over there, nothing will stop me from coming to your lessons, because I like learning from you just as much as you like teaching me. Hell, I'd probably still attend even if I was a ghost!" My last bit of dialogue made her jump in her seat and look at me again.

"You mustn't say things like that, Montana-kun! They bring bad luck!" So she was superstitious, eh? I get it, I'm a baseball fan and all, so we understand superstition.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. You won't have to worry about me becoming a ghost anytime soon, I promise you that."

I wasn't sure of my words, but I made it sound like I was. I'm a good liar.

I hate that about myself.

"Good..." Was all she said in response.

I Looked down and realized she was holding my hand in both of hers, and was squeezing rather tightly.

I also didn't have to look around to realize a few of the other Arks had started watching us.

I could feel the blood rushing to my face, and it suddenly felt extremely hot in the hangar, even though it was a cool seventy-seven Fahrenheit day.

"USS Montana! Gather your team for departure! USS Montana! Gather your team for departure!" The hangar's intercom buzzed.

I didn't want to leave. Especially when Haruna and I were in this position, embarrassing as it was.

My head swiveled to her face and she was smiling with her eyes closed.

"That's you, Montana-kun! You need to go or you'll miss your flight!" She removed one of her hands from mine and...

Patted my head. As if I was a child.

My face couldn't get any more pink.

Haruna and I stood up at the same time and I grabbed my duffle from under her.

 _'It's warm... Aggggh! It was on Haruna's butt! Don't be creepy!_ '

I started walking to the opened hangar doors but I realized I didn't say goodbye to her.

My body turned around to look at Haruna, and I gave her a big smile and said, "Don't forget where we left off for tutoring!" I saw her raise a determined fist and nod in response.

I had already turned around, so I didn't see her bring that fist to her chest and clench it with her other hand.

* * *

My team's plane flew North to Korea and refueled before continuing our long hopping journey to Germany, where we'd prepare for the para-drop into France.

We'd originally planned on landing at a French airport, but with the defensive lines just about shattered, it was very hard to know what airfields were safe and which ones weren't, so it was decided that we'd parachute instead.

Parachute training was included in ground combat training, so everyone was fine in that regard. But with us jumping, we'd now have to limit our equipment.

Scharnhorst had to ditch his MG42, and brought an FG42 instead. Smaller and lighter, but didn't have the quite the same suppression ability or ammo capacity that the MG42 did. His job was now more akin to a rifleman than a machine-gunner, but he could still fit the gunner role. I could keep the BAR, but I had to drop the Winchester trench gun I was also planning on bringing. I was okay with this, since if an enemy came close enough for me to use the shotgun, I could just as easily resort to hand-to-hand.

The riflemen and Jintsuu were okay, since their loads weren't particularly cumbersome, unlike us machine-gunners. The carriers had to lose a few of their planes, but the ones they kept were enough for the operation at hand.

Phoenix was another story.

She was somehow still able to keep her flamethrower, but had to drop much of her explosives. The anti-tank gear she dropped wasn't too great of a loss since most tanks posed little threat to us, but the experimental plastic explosives and TNT left behind would've been useful for destroying buildings and emplacements, something we'd undoubtedly be doing.

"Montana, sir, we've just been cleared to land by the Luftwaffe. We'll be on the ground in ten minutes." The pilot called to me from the cockpit before turning back to his console.

"Alright guys, back to your seats and strap in. We only have one flight after this and it's the big one." I told the team before taking a seat myself.

I was confident in their abilities, but I just hoped that we weren't too late to save the situation in France.

* * *

 **June 17th, 1942  
** **Gollheim Airfield  
** **Germany**

We had landed at Gollheim Airfield, just a few dozen miles from the French border. It was here that we made our final preparations.

Phoenix counted out the total weight of the explosives she was able to take. Roma made a radio check with the Admiral and Nagato, who were already in Cornwall. Jintsuu adjusted her scope and binoculars. Unicorn and Lex made pre-flight checks on their planes, and Graf and Takao cleaned their weapons.

I was dealing with German command.

"Sir, I appreciate your willingness to assist us, but this is just something I can't accept." I looked at the stone-faced German standing before me.

Major General Dietrich was a tall man, and older, probably around mid-fifties. I could tell that he probably served in the Great War. His demeanor was very formal and proper, much like you'd expect a career military officer to act.

He was acting as a representative of German High Command when he told me that our jump would be accompanied by a squad of _Fallschirmjager_ , German paratroopers.

Under different circumstances, I would have appreciated the assistance. But this was too sudden. I knew that the soldiers in question were of tier one quality, but the issue I had stemmed from the fact that I'd never trained with them or knew their allegiances. Not to mention the difficulty we'd have in communication, but this could be remedied by Graf's translation if none of the troopers spoke English. I suppose the biggest issue I had with the proposal, though, was the fact that I thought this was way too suspicious. I mean, Germany shares a border with France, and they could've sent troops to France over two months ago when the invasion started. What was their motivation behind sending them now?

"Montana, I realize you might have a... less than stellar view of the Reich. But I guarantee that you will not find better soldiers in France. They would be under your command until the defense has been completed. At which point, we'd make contact with you and our men to organize their return." He was frank, and the offer was tempting, but I wasn't convinced.

"I have no doubt about their capability, General, but I worry of the logistics with bringing on all of these new troops. I'm sorry, but I just need more incentive for me to bring them with us." I say with a little remorse. They were good soldiers, surely, but I was hesitant about dealing with their leaders.

"Very well, you have made your grievances known. We shall speak again before you leave." He straightened out his uniform and turned around to leave.

"I'm not too sure about that sir, we're supposed to leave in thirty." He didn't reply and continued to walk away.

I sighed and left to return to my team. I still had to do my pre-game before we were wheels up.

* * *

' _Son of a bitch.'_ I found myself mentally repeating that as I spotted Dietrich walking to me with his men in tow.

It hadn't been more than twenty minutes, and my team was getting into their seats in the plane when I saw him approaching. I walked out to meet them.

"What's all this then, General? I thought I didn't give my consent?" I cross my arms.

"You'll wish to speak to your commander, Montana. I hear your orders have changed." His face was still the emotionless rock I perceived it to be, but I sensed a bit of snark.

"Montana! It's the Admiral!" Roma called to me as she leaned out of the entrance of the plane.

 _'Speak of the Devil...'_

I uncurled my arms and jogged to Roma, holding the receiver out towards me.

I grabbed it.

"Go for Montana."

"Montana, this is Nagato. The Admiral says you are to take these men with you."

I pinched the bridge of my nose.

"Ma'am, I'll be frank and just say I don't trust these guys. I work with other Germans just fine, but the ships are working independently. These guys are still under orders from High Command." I explained my refusal.

"Montana, do you like working with your fellow German ships?"

"What's that got to do with anything?"

"Answer the question, Montana." Her voice was firm, almost reprimanding.

I hesitated.

"Sure. I like working with the German ships." I didn't really have an opinion on them, but they seemed capable enough.

"Good. Than you'll complete this task or you won't work with the KMS again."

Huh?

"Ma'am, what do you mean by that?"

"The High Command want to be a part of this mission badly, Montana. So badly that they'd threaten their contribution to Kamikaze if we refused, in fact."

Shit, the Admiral was being strong-armed.

"Fuck." I tried to say it off the receiver, but it seems she still heard.

"Indeed. Get those men on the plane and leave. This is already becoming more complicated than need-be."

"Affirmative, Montana out."

I handed the attachment back to Roma, who looked at me for a while as I closed my eyes in thought.

"Do they speak English, Dietrich?" I pinched my nose again.

"The men understand it well enough, but don't speak it well. One does, though." He yelled something in German to the group of men.

One of them broke formation and ran towards us, snapping to attention when he reached Dietrich.

"This is Freidrich. He studied at Oxford." Dietrich waved Freidrich closer.

He looked about the same age as me, with short brown hair done in an unusual short on the sides but long down the center style. His blue eyes were almost like ice, and was about six-two.

Freidrich saluted me and held out his hand. I was reluctant, but I shook it.

"It will be a pleasure serving with you, Montana. I am the squad leader, so any orders you have for the men I can effectively relay to them."

"Sure. Get them loaded up, will you? We're leaving soon and I need to speak to your boss." I turned to face Dietrich as Freidrich hopped back to his squad to relay the order to mount up.

The General and I traded stares at each other for a short while before I spoke.

"This isn't a good way to make friends, General."

"The people and I care not for friends, we only care about finishing this war in our favor and keeping the Reich strong when all is said and done." He put his arms behind his back and started to walk off the tarmac.

He yelled, "We'll be in touch." over his shoulders and continued walking nonchalantly.

My eyes burned a hole in the back of his head for a while, but I turned back to the troopers.

"Freidrich!" I yelled out for him.

This wasn't going to be a pleasant conversation, but it had to be done.

He jogged to me once again, his tricolor uniform and gear bouncing with each step as he approached.

"Yes, Montana? I still need a bit of time to get the men onto the plane." He was more relaxed with Dietrich gone.

"Just so we're straight, I need you to listen to me now, and listen good." I took a couple of steps closer to him, which highlighted our difference in size as I got closer.

He might've been bigger than me, but he certainly was the one that was supposed to be intimidated.

"I'm your CO now, right?" I ask him, maybe two feet away from him now.

He nodded.

"Then let's get this out of the way. I don't know why your bosses wanted you guys to come with us. Truth be told, I'm not all that interested. But I can tell you this much."

I leaned in.

"If you do anything contradictory to my orders, or you do anything that puts the lives of innocents or my team at risk without my orders, I won't hesitate to throw you to the Abyssals. And that's a promise, not a threat."

He showed no reaction, but instead lit a cigarette and took a long drag.

"Scare tactics won't work on me, Fish. I've fought too long for me to even consider them valid. You don't have anything to worry about from me or my men, I'll give you that. You are my commander for now, but you should know, when the time comes, I will not hesitate to follow orders given to me by High Command." He took another drag.

"Fine. Get your shit and get on the plane. We don't want to lose darkness."

He left and returned to his men.

' _Fuck this. Seriously.'_

I waited for the troopers to board before getting on the plane myself, and going to the cockpit to tell the pilots we were good to go.

I took a seat near the plane's entrance next to Graf as we took off.

* * *

 **June 18th, 1942  
Over France**

It was very early in the morning, or late at night.

Whatever, it was dark.

We were nearing the drop zone. The flight so far was uneventful, the team was doing a last check of their weapons and gear, smoking and doing various things while we waited.

No-one talked though.

For a while we had been flying over friendly territory, but the last half-hour was spent over contested land. We received an occasional burst of flak, but no interceptors had been scrambled, a good sign.

The plane rocked as there was an explosion about thirty yards starboard. Then another. These were followed up by a full bombardment of flak as either Abyssals or erroneous French fired at the plane.

A red light came on in the cabin.

' _Shit, surely were not at the drop point... This ride won't last long though. Time to jump.'_

I stood up.

"Jumpers! Hooks ready!"

The team lifted their "D" rings to show their readiness.

"Stand up!"

They stood.

"Hook up!"

They put their hooks onto the rope running down the center of the plane.

"Equipment check!"

The team let out a cacophony of calls confirming their readiness.

"Prepare for jump!"

They waited.

The plane continued to rock, getting more and more violent as the bombardiers got more accurate.

A bright ball of flame erupted from the right side of the plane. Phoenix looked out the window.

"Holy shit! Moe! The engine's on fire! Let's get the hell out this thing!"

The light turned green.

I motioned for Graf to jump.

"GO! GO! GO!"

Graf jumped, followed by a trooper, Scharnhorst, and three more troopers before the plane shook even more, accompanied by a horrifying shrieking sound as the flaming engine on the right seized up and destroying itself.

Jintsuu, Takao and Phoenix got out before the shrieking turned into an explosion.

The inside of the cabin exploded with the sound of metal bouncing around the enclosed space.

The troopers took the brunt of the blast, a few of them letting out shrieks after being hit by shrapnel. Some didn't make sounds at all and simply fell to the deck.

"LET'S GO! GET THE FUCK OUT!" I lost my composure and just wanted everyone to leave this death-trap.

Roma and a few more troopers leaped before perhaps the worst thing that could happen, happened.

The plane broke in half.

Okay, so not entirely the worst thing to happen as the plane didn't blow the hell up, but I'll say the second worse thing that could happen.

The wing ripped off, and we started lazily corkscrewing back down to Earth.

I had lost my balance, and staggered as I threw anybody I could reach out of the door before I was tackled out the door.

The person who tackled me let go of me so our parachutes didn't intertwine. They deployed seconds after jumping.

We lazily fell down to the Earth as I watched our plane dropping from the sky.

It nosedived into a cropping of trees, where it exploded.

I quickly started counting the parachutes I could see, but it was difficult since they were black, a stealth measure for our night operation.

' _One, two, three... seven? Fuck me, this is bad.'_

I tried to get a look at the person who saved me, but it was too dark to make out their face. I'd have to wait until we hit the ground.

I hit the deck about a minute later, violently crashing through branches and trees before hitting the ground.

The landing was hard, and I had to roll forward a couple of times before I regained my balance.

I pulled my bayonet and cut the strings connecting the parachute to my harness, and I then unbuckled that. I pulled up my BAR and cycled a round while I waited.

Nothing was heard for a few minutes except for the occasional secondary explosion, as well as the buzzing of local fauna.

A figure appeared in the thicket. It was humanoid, and had a rifle. I brought up my own and brought the sights to center mass.

I let out a three-tone whistle.

The figure stopped and crouched down. It let out a two-tone whistle of it's own.

The two of us approached each other. As I got closer I noticed that it was wearing German gear.

Freidrich.

He was looking a bit worse for wear, the left side of his face was streaming blood from a cut on his eyebrow and a wound near his ear. In fact, it looked like his ear was torn in half.

We crouched down as we got near each other.

"Freidrich."

"Fish."

"Well, the drop could've been better..." I let out a sigh.

"Not the worst I've had." Freidrich looks like a veteran, so I could believe that.

"You lose anything in the drop?" I got lucky and seemingly still had all of my gear, but I knew that wouldn't be the case with the entire crew.

"I managed to keep a hold of my rifle and most of my ammo, but I lost my pack and helmet. Nothing I can't get back. Well, besides my fucking ear, I mean."

He was right about that. The wound to his ear didn't seem to impair his hearing, but when it healed up it wasn't going to look pretty.

"Let's get moving. We came from this direction," I point to the East, "Let's try to meet up with my men."

" _Jawohl._ "

Freidrich cycled a round in his StG and we left in a crouch to find the team.

* * *

MY watch had been busted when we landed, but Freidrich's was still working.

' _Three-twenty-two. Okay, we still have a little bit of dark left for us. But they're already sending out patrols.'_

Freidrich and I were sneaking through a hedge when we heard a scream coming from a nearby farmhouse.

We hit the deck.

"We got fish..." Freidrich says in a whisper.

The house was about fifty yards from our position, so we had a pretty good view of the Abyssal troops filtering out of the house.

Like most of their forces, they were humanoid. They had extremely pale skin and their glowing eyes varied from green, blue and yellow. Their hair, too, varied from white to dark black. One thing that didn't vary, though, was their uniform. It was a deep grey, and seemingly consisted of fish-like scales.

Freidrich and I stayed in our lowered positions and slowly raised our weapons at them, picking or targets.

' _Eight_ _of them? This'll be close._ '

"Freidrich, wait until they are within twenty-five meters. Draw them into the field away from cover."

"Yes."

The patrol made their way towards us. We could tell that they knew something was here, as they had their rifles at the ready, but the soldiers were scanning the field so it seems they didn't know exactly where we were.

' _Forty meters... Thirty-five... Thirty...'_ I aimed my BAR center-mass at the Abyssal squad leader.

 _PSSHHT!_

A gunshot rang out from treeline surrounding the field.

One of the soldiers' snapped their head back and fell to the ground. The others dropped to the dirt.

I had to take advantage of this moment, so I came up to a kneel a primed one of my grenades.

I gave gave it a good baseball throw.

"Frag out!"

If the soldiers didn't know where we were before, my warning to Freidrich alerted them.

The grenade landed where I figured they were centered, and a couple of the got up to dodge the blast.

Freidrich let out a couple of bursts and cut a few of them down, and received a few shots aimed at his location in return.

The unknown shooter in the forest took out the Abyssals returning fire.

The grenade I threw exploded.

I picked myself up from the ground and aimed my BAR at the small area the patrol had taken cover.

I waited.

No sound came from their location.

Freidrich slowly came from behind me and tapped my shoulder to signal our approach.

We slowly came upon their last location side-by-side, weapons at the ready.

A single soldier stood up and aimed a rifle at us, but I was quicker.

My rifle rattled as I stitched a burst of large caliber bullets across the soldier's chest, nearly tearing them in half.

No sound came from the field.

Freidrich and I split up and scanned the bodies checking for survivors. There were none.

We crouched back down and looked to each other.

"Any idea who that could be?" He asked.

"A little, but I can't be sure. Hold on." I raised the flashlight from my belt and flashed it a few times.

The sniper gave a long flash back.

 _'Jintsuu. Good._ '

"It's my sniper, I've told her to join us. She's on her way now." The moonlight had gotten brighter, so we could see Jinstuu's khaki uniform as she made her wasy towards us. She had a few troopers with her, but I couldn't see any more Arks alongside them.

"Shit, looks like we need to keep searching." I mutter under my breath. Freidrich heard.

"Indeed. But we have three options." He looked at me.

"We can go back to the crash site. I didn't see Unicorn and Lexington make it out of the plane, but they could've survived they crash."

I slumped a bit.

' _Shit, I hadn't even thought of that_.'

"It may be dangerous though, as it is likely that the fish are making their way to the crash site. Option two, we can continue East and try to find more of our men. This will take us further from our objective. Or option three, we can cut our losses and make our way to Paris, and hope the rest of the team has made the same decision."

"Nah, fuck that. I'm not abandoning my people."

"Very well, then make your decision."

I thought for a little while as we waited for Jintsuu's squad to meet up with us.

"Option one. We're going back to the crash site. Lex and Unicorn's abilities are more than worth the effort in recovering them."

"Very well."

Jintsuu and her troopers joined up with us.

"Montana, it is good to see you." She places the butt of her rifle on the ground and leans on it.

"You too, Jin. Do you know where the others are?" I ask.

She remorsefully shakes her head.

"No. I only found these men when they cut me from a tree I was stuck in." She points her thumb at the paratroopers still arriving at our rendezvous.

I sighed and shook my head.

"Fuck me..."

Jintsuu suddenly flinched and raised her head.

"Wait. Montana, when I was stuck above the forest canopy I was able to spot trees burning about a kilometer from my position. I don't know what direction it was moving, but the damage is consistent with-"

"Phoenix." I interrupt her.

She nods her head.

I looked in the direction she came from and spotted an orange light emanating above the trees.

One of the paratroopers said something to Freidrich in German.

"Montana, my man says that he spotted a firefight not far from his position when he landed. He lost his rifle though, and couldn't tell which side was which, so he didn't engage."

I looked at the man that spoke and, indeed, he only had his Walther P38.

"Okay, let's hope that he saw the rest of the team. We're making our way to the crash site. Keep him safe so he can backtrack us to the firefight."

Freidrich said something to his men in German and they got closer to the nearly-unarmed man.

"Let's go." I got up and started jogging in the direction of the crashed plane. Already I could hear gunfire and explosions coming from that area.

I picked up my pace and started running.

* * *

The team and I got within a kilometer of the crash before we realized the source of the explosions and gunfire.

The Abyssals were currently engaged with French ground forces.

We encountered a squad of fish dug into a drainage ditch firing at the French. They had a machine gun emplacement and were firing a river of bullets at anyone they could see.

We had them flanked, so when Jintsuu took out the gunner Freidrich and I rushed the position with the support of his men.

They were slower than me and Freidrich, but I couldn't hold it against them since we had just run about three miles in full gear. It would take an amazing amount of activity to tire me down due to my biology, and Freidrich seemed to be in just about the same shape.

I jumped into the ditch and shot a few bullets into the nearest enemy, exploding their chest. Freidrich stood at the lip of the ditch and sprayed into a group of Abyssals attempting to cool down their machine gun.

My BAR swung around to fire at one of them grabbing a rifle, but was interrupted as a soldier tackled me in the gut. They weren't nearly powerful enough to take me down, but the momentum staggered me and I lost my aim.

I lifted my rifle and brought the butt of the stock down on top of their spine, eliciting a satisfying cracking sound from their spine breaking as they fell to the ground.

I regained the bead I had one the armed soldier just in time to see her fire a shot at Freidrich, causing him to twist around and fall to the ground, but not before I saw blood erupt from a head shot.

Yelling in anger, I held the trigger down as I just about emptied the rest of my magazine into the soldier's torso.

I scanned the makeshift trench for more targets, but the rest of the paratroopers were already there and mopping up the remaining enemies.

The BAR swung around my shoulder as I slung it across my back, and I hopped out of the ditch before waving my arms above my head at the French position to signal that we were friendly.

Jinstuu ran up to my position.

"Nice shooting, Jin." I keep my head looking in the direction of the French.

"Thanks." She seemingly curses something in Japanese. "I didn't have a shot on the one that got Freidri-"

She is interrupted by a loud groan and grumbling German.

"Shicze... Shcicze..."

Freidrich says a few more German swears as he slowly lifts himself off the ground.

"Montana!" Jin says as she rushes to his side.

I look over at the wounded man.

' _Holy shit!'_

Freidrich's right eye was very bloodshot and pink, and a very large gash stretched from his right temple to the back of the side of his head.

"Can my injuries stop focusing on my fucking face?!" He yelled out as Jin helped him up.

She took off her bandanna and tied it tighly around his head.

"Jesus, you are one lucky bastard, Freidrich. A bit ugly now, though." I smirked.

"Fuck you, Montana." He understandably didn't see the same humor in the situation that I did.

A feminine voice called out from behind me.

"Montana!"

I turned around.

Roma was there, standing with a group of French soldiers.

"Roma, you are sure as Hell a sight for sore eyes." I approached her.

"And you as well." She stuck her hand out and I embraced it.

"But don't get too excited." I cocked an eyebrow at that.

She motioned to the soldiers with her. They were a mixed crew of uniformed and un-uniformed, young and old, and the wounded and unbloodied.

"These men, don't speak anything but French. I was with a _Jaeger_ that could speak it, but he was killed not long after I met with them."

I spoke to the men in French.

Jin and Roma looked at me astonished, and Freidrich probably would've been too if wasn't already preoccupied with trying to keep the blood and sweat out of his eyes.

"What is the situation?" I say to none of the men in particular.

An old uniformed soldier with a beard spoke.

"My name is Emile. You are?"

"USS Montana. I'm the leader of the task force brought here." I reply.

He puts his hand to his chin in thought.

"Hmm... Don't know nothin' about a task force. You'll need to speak to our commander. He's just past that thicket of trees." He turned and pointed at the thicket in question.

"Yes, of course. But we'll need to do that later. A couple of my men went down with our plane. We're searching for them." I looked at him.

"I hate to tell you this, friend, but there's no way they survived. The fish shelled that position about an hour ago."

I check my watch, only to be reminded that it's broken. I hopped over to Freidrich and grabbed his arm to look at his watch.

' _Four forty-five.'_

That meant that Lex and Unicorn had about fifteen to twenty minutes to get away from the wreckage, if they survived at all.

But if that was the case, it also meant that they had an hour to get away from their last known position. We'd have to spend a lot of time searching for them if that was the case.

My hands threw themselves up and grabbed my head.

Nobody said anything for some time.

I pointed at Jin.

"Jin, take Friedrich and the Jaeger and look for Unicorn and Lex with the French. Roma and I are taking a few troopers and we're heading back to find the others. We'll meet back here in two hours." I swung my rifle back around and pointed my finger at a few of the men.

"You, you and you. Come with me."

Much like Dietrich said, they could understand what I was saying, judging by the fact that they shouldered their rifles and started jogging with me back to our last position.

I heard Roma say "Good luck" to Jin and Freidrich before catching up with me.

* * *

The unarmed soldier led the rest of the troopers with Roma and I back to where he saw the firefight. It was a small cottage with a barn attached in the same forest we'd been operating in.

It had definitely seen signs of fighting.

A couple of the walls were blown out on the main building, and the barn's roof was collapsed. It had been on fire.

Not to mention the bodies of humans and Abyssals littering the site.

I didn't see any Jaeger, but all of the humans looked like they were part of the rag-tag French force we saw earlier.

We were crouched down near a brick outhouse observing the site. We'd been here about ten minutes and didn't observe any movement.

"Alright, time to move." I turned to the team after watching the cottage.

"Roma, you stay here with Hans," I pointed to the unarmed soldier, "and cover the perimeter. Fritz and Henrik are coming with me to search the house."

I checked to see how many rounds I had in my magazine and swapped in a fresh one. I nodded to the two men.

"Let's go."

I stood and came around the corner with my weapon ready. Fritz and Henrik followed me in a line, their rifles drawn.

Henrik moved past me and kicked the nearest door down before moving to the side and let me and Fritz through before following.

The first thing I noticed was the _very_ strong scent of cordite.

' _Good, if they're not here they're nearby.'_

The three of us scanned the first floor and didn't find anything besides a few more bodies and their weapons.

We went upstairs. The floor split in two directions, so I motioned for the troopers to go left and I'd go right.

I had cleared two rooms, and was entering the third and seemingly final one when someone grabbed the long barrel of my rifle as if crossed the threshold of the door and pulled me inside.

They gave me a good lick across the face and cocked back to give me another one before I dropped my clunky rifle and dove into their midsection.

We tumbled to the ground and I managed to get on top of them.

I unholstered my 1911 out and was about to give them a couple rounds in the chest and face when they spoke.

"JE SUIS FRANCAIS!" They yelled.

I kept both hands on my weapon and actually took the time to analyze my target.

It was a human male, probably not much older than eighteen, and he looked terrified.

I lowered my pistol.

Fritz and Henrik charged inside, but lowered their weapons once they saw that I was okay.

"Why did you attack me?" I ask in French.

"I was scared! The fish had attacked here barely an hour ago! I didn't know who you were!" He explained.

"How did you survive?" I inquire.

"What?"

I raised my pistol to aim at his chest again. Fritz and Henrik did their best to look menacing, and, I admit, did a damn fine job of it.

"How. Did. You. Survive?" I needed to know if I was dealing with a traitor.

"I-I'm a coward! I hid! There is a panic room in the wardrobe, it has a false backing!" He was pleading.

I stood up from my position over him and walked to the wardrobe, pistol still pointed at him. I opened the doors.

Sure enough, the back of the dresser was open, leading to a crawlspace that he'd be able to uncomfortably fit inside.

I lowered my pistol and holstered it.

"Alright. I won't shoot you."

He visibly relaxed at that, and lowered his raised hands.

"We're looking for some friends of ours. Not French, you'd be able to tell."

He started to get up and I offered my hand. He didn't take it.

"Yes. I saw them. They're the reason I no longer have a house or any friends." He grimaced.

"What happened?"

"They had been in a running firefight with the fish, and came across our cottage. The took cover here and set up defensive positions." He explained.

"What did they look like?" I needed confirmation.

"There were maybe ten of them. About six looked like your German friends," He pointed at Fritz and Henrik, "And the others didn't."

"Okay, describe those ones." I took a step closer to him. We almost had a lead on where they went.

"Two were German, a woman and man. She was shorter and had dark hair, he was huge. The other two were women. One wore a khaki uniform and had short dark hair under her cap, and the other was young. A teenager. I didn't get a good look at her face since I couldn't stop staring at her flamethrower."

All the confirmation I needed.

"What happened to them?" I didn't hide the desperation in my voice.

He pointed to the barn outside.

"You see that?"

I nodded.

"Flamethrower girl went in there and kept the fish at bay. I heard a ping and a hissing noise, and the barn exploded in flame. I didn't see her or the two troopers who went in there leave."

' _Oh... Please... Don't let that be true...'_

Before he could tell me what happened to the rest I was already running down the stairs and out the front door, sprinting to the wrecked barn.

I started desperately picking through the wreckage.

My hands were working on their own as my mind raced. Roma must've said my name five times before I looked at her.

She saw the water leaking from my eyes and didn't say anything else.

I kept picking for a few more minutes until she approached me again.

"Montana... we have to go. The Frenchman told us where the other went. We can't waste any time." She put her hand on my shoulder as I knelt in the wreckage.

I grabbed one last piece of rubble and threw it, finding exactly what I didn't want to find.

In an area that would've been near a window when the building was still standing, I found a head of bright orange hair.

' _No no no no no no no...'_

I dug a little more and my fears were confirmed.

It was Phoenix.

Her body was very badly burnt, leaving only parts of her face and a bit of her hair to identify her.

I yelled up at the sky, at whoever was listening.


	6. Chapter 6

**Uploaded a little late, but here you guys go!**

 **As always, a review saying if you liked the chapter or hated it and why is greatly appreciated.**

* * *

 **June 18th, 1942  
Rambouillet, France**

The newly-risen sun shone through the thick canopy of trees surrounding the cottage.

I was knelt in the still smoldering rubble of a barn.

The recently awakened birds called to the world, but their song was hollow to me.

Roma walked from behind me.

"Montana, it's been two hours since we left. Jintsuu and Freidrich are waiting for us." She reasoned.

"Yeah..." I muttered.

The tears had stopped a while ago, but I could still feel my eyes burn.

I took a deep breath a stood back up.

"Did the guy say where the others went?" I look to her.

"Remy said that the others went East, towards Paris. Apparently we're near Rambouillet, so we dropped early." She handed me my rifle.

"Yeah, I figured as much. The Abyssals got their triple-A dug in quicker than we thought." I check the chamber of my BAR.

"So, shall we go?" She cocked her head.

"Let's g-... wait." I jogged back to Phoenix.

American-built Arks had an identifying tag inserted into their chest, right onto the breastplate. When retrieved and activated, the deceased Ark would activate internal self-destruct measures that destroyed sensitive material and prevented reverse-engineering.

My rifle swung behind me as I knelt next to Phoenix and pulled my knife.

' _Number seven. Seven times I've had to do this._ ' I plunged my knife downward into Phoenix's charred torso, dragging it down a few inches to reveal her sealed rib cage.

' _There._ '

I stuck my hand into her chest and pinched my fingers around a small plate before giving it a small tug, releasing it from her body. The hissing of the dissolving solution started.

I looked at the small tag.

 _UNITED STATES SHIP PHOENIX  
_ _CL-46_

 _CRUISER  
BROOKLYN-CLASS_

 _LAUNCHED: 12/08/40_

' _FROM THE ASHES, I RISE'_

Such little wording to sum up a person's life.

The tag went onto my necklace, where all of the others were. I don't even have to look at them to remember what they say.

Pennsylvania was the first.

 _UNITED STATES SHIP PENNSYLVANIA  
_ _BB-39_

 _BATTLESHIP  
_ _PENNSYLVANIA-CLASS_

 _LAUNCHED: 4/12/40_

 _'INDEPENDENCE SHALL REIGN'_

Before Phoenix, the last was Hancock.

 _UNITED STATES SHIP HANCOCK_  
 _CV-19_

 _CARRIER_  
 _ESSEX-CLASS_

 _LAUNCHED: 10/27/41_

 _'I AM FIRST'_

Among others.

I sheathed my knife and put my necklace back on.

"Let's go."

* * *

The run back to the French positions took a half an hour, mostly because we had to dodge a few Abyssal patrols. They were more active now that the sun was up and visibility was good. A single Abyssal patrol is nothing hard to handle, but the problem comes when they are reinforced. _Then_ it becomes too hard to handle.

The French were in remarkable spirits when we returned. They were talking to me and laughing while cooking or eating their breakfast, and one offered us a smoke. Roma and I declined, but Henrik and Hans accepted. I hadn't seen a moment when Fritz _didn't_ have a cigarette in his mouth, so he was already occupied.

Apparently, most of the soldiers didn't know about our arrival. Because of this, they didn't know about my team's scattered actions around Rambouillet which threw the fish in the area into disarray. They thought that, for the first time in a month, they managed to halt the Abyssal advance on their own, which raised morale greatly.

I didn't want to be a buzzkill, so I kept my lips sealed about the truth.

We were continuing our walk through the lines when Roma spoke.

"How do you know French, Montana?" She asked from behind me.

I hadn't said anything since we left the cottage besides the occasional order, so she probably just wanted to get me talking.

"My brother taught me. American Arks sometimes inherit traits reminiscent of our names, so he's part Creole. He actually believes in witchcraft, too." I say without looking.

She let out a laugh. "I find it amusing that a practical man such as him would believe in such things."

We continued in silence.

"Do you?" She spoke again.

"What? Belief in witchcraft?" I say dismissively.

"No. Do you inherit any traits from your name?" She clarifies.

I thought about it.

"I don't know, actually. I like green fields, mountains and big open spaces, but a lot of people like those things. Are people from Montana not special in any way?" I ask more to myself than her.

"It's your country, not mine." She laughs again.

Our walk continued for a few minutes more when we were greeted by a familiar face.

Lexington stood before us. He was missing his left hand and a few of his right fingers, and his left foot seemed to be nearly cut in half length-wise. His face was missing his nose and some of his upper lip.

He still had his winning grin, though.

I saw him and jogged the distance between us.

"Son. Of. A. Bitch. Where they Hell did they find you?" I say as I pat him on the back.

"They caught me in the middle of my morning nap. I got lucky when the plane hit the ground. A pocket of air threw me out as the wreck exploded." He pointed to his left stump, which was bandaged over. "Didn't get out unscathed though, and it knocked me out for a good while."

I looked behind him.

Jintsuu, Freidrich and the rest of the paratroopers were there, standing patiently.

Someone was missing.

"Where's Unicorn?" The jovial looks on our faces drooped at the same time.

"She, uh, she's the one that saved me." He looks down.

"I don't follow."

"Unicorn found me after the crash. I was still unconscious, so she dragged me away from the site. She's the reason I'm still here." He threw his hand up. "But she was in worse condition than I was. I'm amazed she managed to pull me the distance she did, in fact, considering the extent of her injuries."

"Lex, where is she now?" I grab his shoulder.

He looks at my face.

"She found us an aid station and they took her to Paris, Moe. Her injuries were too dangerous for battlefield dressings. They took her to the nearest repair bay, which is in Paris." He sighed. "I don't know anything else."

"Okay. We'll find out about her soon." I state through a long breath.

I wrap an arm around Lex as we walk to Jin.

She has a sullen look on her face.

"You do not return with the rest of the team."

I look at her, already feeling the burning coming back to my eyes.

"Jin, uh..." I cross my arms and look back down.

I can't look either of them in the eyes to say this. My trepidation doesn't come from the fact that I'm telling my friends a teammate died, but from the fact that I think it was my fault.

"Phoenix is, uh... She's gone, guys." I sniff a little.

Jin claspes her hands and dipped her head. Lex crouches down, hands covering his face.

"We have a lead on the others. They..." I let out a long breath. "They went in the direction of Paris. That's our objective. If we find them there, we can continue the mission. But if we don't..." I think about what I'm about to say. "If we don't find the rest of the team, I'm scrapping the mission. We can't complete our objective with only four Arks."

The implication of those words haunts me.

"Montana... We would leave these people to the Abyssals? They wouldn't last the month it would take to train a new team! They would _die,_ Montana!" Jin looks up at my face, and I raise my eyes from the ground to meet hers.

"And we would die with them if we stayed. Jintsuu, I'm the team leader, and when the time comes, I'll be making the call." I hissed my words through gritted teeth.

I appreciate that Jintsuu cared about saving these people so much, but I refused to let her berate me for a decision that has yet to be made.

She sighed and bowed her head.

"You are right. I apologize for questioning you." She raised her head. "What is our next step?"

"Freidrich!" I yell out for the man.

He had been surveying drops his binoculars and comes to me. The aid station must've worked on him, since he is wearing a bandage around his head for the gunshot wound, and his half-ear has a bandage on it as well. The cut on his left eyebrow was sewn shut.

"I'm going to talk to the local commander and see if he can secure us a ride. But I want your men to search around for transportation in case I can't get it through proper channels. Good?"

He nods and walks back to the Jaeger.

"Jin, provide overwatch for the locals. I don't want us to be ready to leave then get blown up because we were spotted by an artillery scout."

She heads towards the lines.

I turn to face Lex. He hadn't said anything since I told him the news. It was a few minutes still before he spoke.

Still crouched he said, "Shitty way to go."

Yeah, you got that right, pal. Burning to death is pretty high-up on my list of ways not to die.

He sighed and put his hands on knees to get up.

"You go talk to the locals. I'm going to help Roma make contact with Cornwall."

Odd, I thought _I_ was the commander of this squad.

Lexington turns and walks back to the collection of ramshackle tents housing the paratroopers and French.

' _Right. Back to work._ '

* * *

The walk to the officer's tent was a long one. The distance itself was rather short, but more than once I had to stop and jump into the nearest trench to avoid an incoming Abyssal barrage. They were coming in further intervals, which meant that Jintsuu was likely getting to work on taking out the artillery spotters. A few of the veteran French found my cautious behavior amusing. Many of them didn't even react to the whistling of incoming shells now, they just carried on with whatever they were doing.

One of them called out to me in English, "Ey, frog-boy! If any of those shells land anywhere close to you, you're done for anyway! The best thing to do is to just say your prayers and hope you don't leave too much of a mess for us to clean up!" He turned back and laughed with a few of his peers.

He was wrong, though. I could likely take a direct hit from a land-based platform and survive. I mean, I would definitely need repairs and be put out of action for a while, but I'd survive.

Personally, the thought of pulling shrapnel from my ass for the next few days wasn't a pleasant one. You'll understand if I didn't try to test my theory.

My cautious actions extended the easily ten minute walk to a comparatively long thirty minutes. It was worth it though, considering the aforementioned reasons.

The officer's tent was right were Emile said it was. Well, he said it was past a thicket of trees, and considering we were in a forest, anything could be considered 'just past a thicket of trees', but that's besides the point.

The tent didn't look much different from the ones surrounding it. They were all made from brown canvas, and all of them appeared to be hastily put-together. Some were so tattered it looked as though they wouldn't provide any more shelter than just sleeping outside.

The officer's tent, however, was distinguishable by the fact that it had a wooden table with chairs set up just outside. A place for briefings. Well, the table and the fact that the tent was not as tattered made it distinguishable.

I approached it and stopped at the closed flaps.

' _Can't exactly knock, now can I?_ '

I cleared my throat.

"Excuse me!" I say in loud French.

I could hear metal and glass clink together as a figure rustled past the flaps.

"Uggh... _Merde_... What in the hell do you want?" The figure groaned as it threw open the entrance.

The first thing I noticed about the man was the fact that he looked like he had just driven through a dynamite factory.

The second thing I noticed was the fact that he looked like this _and_ smelled like it too, only if the smell of sulfur was replaced by the smell of alcohol.

He was fairly short, and had short black hair and a thin-but-lengthy mustache accompanied by some five o'clock shadow. He was wearing his riding boots and the pants from his officer's uniform. His shirt was absent.

I didn't salute so as to not attract snipers, but instead bowed my head. "Sir, I'm USS Montana. My team and I were dropped in last night to assist with the defense of France. Right now, I need your assistance in acquiring transportation to Paris."

He scrutinized me for a bit before throwing the flap open a bit more and gesturing me inside.

I crossed the threshold and was immediately barraged by a stench composed of booze, smoke, blood and body odor.

The officer closed the flap behind me and walked to his bunk. He sat down and pulled out a cigarette, taking a long pull after lighting it.

"I am Louis de Boudroux. First Leftenant. I've been charge of the defense here for the last week, since my superior was killed by an artillery shell." He took another drag.

"Continue your story." He exhaled.

I tightened my posture a bit. "As I said sir, my team and I dropped into here early this morning. We have one KIA, one severely wounded and three are MIA. We know the wounded one's location, and we have a lead on the location of the missing. But it's in Paris, and we have no means of getting there short of walking." I explain everything.

Boudroux got up from his cot and walked to a table in the tent. He pulled out a bottle of what I presumed was bourbon and a glass, blowing into it to clean it a bit. He pours himself a glass.

And takes a swig from the bottle.

"So you bring..." I could see him mentally go over the numbers, "Four frogs. And you hope that you can stop the invasion?" He places the bottle down and picks up the glass, leaning on the table and looking at me.

"Sir, my team and I are here to assist in France's defense any way we can. We are by no means the main force, they are in the English channel preparing to attack the Abyssal invasion fleet." I tighten my jaw.

Boudroux looks at me silently and says, "You know Montana, I've been here for five weeks. In that time we've tried everything to give us some breathing room. Gun emplacements, artillery, tanks, even other Arks such as yourself." He points at me.

"None of it worked. Not a damn thing. Shit, the biggest victory we can celebrate is the fact that the Abyssals will get tired as they climb over our mountain of corpses!" He downs his drink in a single lift.

I look at his empty glass as he prepares to refill it. "Isn't it a little early for that, sir?"

"What? Pessimism?" He snorts and fills up his glass. "They only give me this watered-down piss to drink. Can't even start to feel it until I've had ten."

I wasn't sure if I should be worried about that or not. He seemed like the type who could down ten drinks no problem. In fact, he already seemed like he was halfway there.

I continued to wait. I had already given him the specifics of my mission, but he hadn't given me a response. Boudroux just wasted time wallowing in the hopelessness of his situation. Quite frankly, I was tired of it and wanted to leave. I couldn't see how this guy was allowed to lead so many men, but the fact that the previous commander died made me think that nobody lasted long around here.

He didn't down his drink in one gulp this time, and instead sipped at it. He lowered his glass and looked at me.

"The roads in and out of Rambouillet have been destroyed. Supply runs take much time to get here because of this. The town itself is damn near close to being gone as well, so you won''t find any luck with the inhabitants, as they're already gone. The most I can offer you is a single truck. You can drive yourself, yes?"

I nod.

"Good, you'll need to. You'll find the truck at the motor pool in town. Tell the mechanic I said it was fine, and if he doesn't accept that, send him to me." He lifted his glass and took another sip. "Is there anything else?"

I gave him a salute, "No sir, that is all. I thank you for your assistance." I turned to leave, but he stopped me.

"Enjoy Paris for me while you're there. I likely won't be able to see it again."

I left the tent and walked back towards our encampment.

* * *

When I returned, the team was in a state similar to when I left them. A few of the troopers were sleeping or cleaning their weapons. Lex and Roma were both hunched over working on her backpack radio as it sat on a table. Freidrich sat away from the site with some sort of book in a chair looking towards the Abyssal lines, letting the cigarette between his fingers burn for a while and sporadically taking a huff. Jintsuu was nowhere to be seen, but the occasional crack of a rifle was heard up in the trees. Hard at work, it seemed.

I went to Roma and Lex first.

"Any luck?" I ask before reaching them.

Roma looked up from the radio at me. "Very little. All of our frequencies are receiving no response from anywhere, and we can only hear static on all frequencies. We could try again in Paris, but it seems likely that the enemy is jamming our signals. I don't know if our luck will fare better in town." She shrugged her shoulders and exasperatedly raised her hands.

Lex chimed in, "Boss, we need to make contact with the Admiral soon." He looked at his watch, "It's seven-thirty. He gave us a one day grace period, but he'll have to continue without us if we don't get back to him in that time."

Seriously, Lexington. I know. I went over all of this before we even left Germany.

"Right. For now, you two pack up and get ready to move, we're heading into town. I managed to snag us a ride." They both nodded and the two of them gathered their tools up.

I went to Freidrich next.

He turned his head a bit to look in my direction when he heard me rustling the fallen branches as I made my way to him. His head turned back to the book when he realized who it was.

"Orders?" He asks as he continues to read the book and scan the treelines for enemies.

I crouch down next to him and also start scanning. "Yep. Your boys have any luck finding a vehicle?" I ask. A second vehicle wasn't necessary, but would be nice to keep the truck more comfortable as we wouldn't be packed close together.

He put his cigarette in his mouth and shook his head. "No. The ones that have returned told me that the city is basically abandoned, and the locals took whatever transport they had with them. Any house that might've had a car in it doesn't anymore, or the cars themselves were destroyed when the building they were housed in was destroyed."

Damn. Going to be a tight squeeze, then.

"Well, don't worry about it. The local commander is lending me a truck. Get your men together and prepare to move out, we're all heading into town." I clapped him on the shoulder and stood up.

He took a long breath from the cigarette and put it out on the armrest of his chair. He read a few more words from his book and put it into the cargo pocket on his right thigh, before getting up and walking with me the few yards back to the camp.

I turned to him, "Where's Jintsuu? I need to tell her that we're moving out."

My question was replied to by another shot being fired from a rifle, and Freidrich pointed nearly directly above us. I followed his finger and saw Jintsuu high up sitting on a tree branch, in her own world as she scoped in through her rifle and screened the enemy's lines. Freidrich continued on as I stopped to talk to her.

"How's the view up there?" I yelled up at her. She didn't respond, but instead slowly lowered one hand in my direction, as if telling me to wait. I do so.

She slowly returned the hand back to the long rifle and held it there for a few moments before firing at an unseen target. She continued to look through the scope before cycling a new round and turning down to look at me.

"How many does that make?" I ask her.

"I don't know. I don't count. As their enemy, I have no love for the Abyssals, but I respect them enough to not reduce them to numbers." She shouldered her rifle, "Any word on transport?" Her tone told me that she hadn't quite forgiven me for my comment earlier about our plan, but that was a conversation for another day.

"That's why I'm here. Come on down, we're moving out to the town." I give the tree a tap and watch as she swings the rifle behind her. Jintsuu grabbed the tree branch she was sitting on and swung herself down to hang from it before letting go and falling the thirty feet she was suspended. This drop would've been enough to snap the ankles of a human, but Jin just landed in a crouch before getting up and adjusting the strap of her rifle.

"Shall we go?" She asked rather coldly. I was disappointed with her disposition since Jintsuu had been my confidant thus far into the new division. Lex was my friend and I could share confidential information with him, but I could do the same thing with Jin and she could tell me honestly what she thought.

Earlier this morning was an extreme example of this.

"Let's go." I waved my hand to start us back to the camp. Freidrich was yelling for his men to fall in, and Roma and Lexington were storing the last bit of their gear for the short journey into Rambouillet. The last of the commandos had fallen in line when the whistling of an incoming salvo of artillery made us scramble for cover.

Lex and I dropped into a foxhole that was until recently used by the troopers, while the rest of the team scattered to find any sort of cover from the explosives. It didn't last long and stopped after a minute or two, but the density of shells dropped on us was unlike anything we had seen yet. Not a good sign. It was likely that-

" _CONTACT!_ " My concentration was broken by Freidrich yelling out as he spotted enemies.

As expected, the fish were using the artillery as a screen to advance their soldiers. I looked in the direction he had lifted his rifle and spotted them. Crossing no-man's land was easily a platoon of Abyssal foot soldiers, likely more.

They were being accompanied by a couple of tanks.

The Abyssals had a few different kind of tanks. The A-class was a lightly-armored fast attack unit that had a chain gun instead of a main cannon. The B-class was the opposite of the A, it was heavily-armored and mounted with many guns, but no main gun specifically. The list goes on.

The two tanks slowly advancing ahead of the soldiers and providing them cover were S-classes. The S-class was a relatively new development by the Abyssals, presumably developed using information gathered during their invasion of the Philippines. It maintained a good amount of armor while retaining speed close to an A-class. Unlike the other examples, the S-class was mounted with a large-bore cannon that, proven on more than one occasion, could kill an Ark with a direct hit.

' _Fuck, fuck, fuck..._ '

One of the tanks aimed at our position.

" _COVER!"_ I screamed at the top of my lungs.

The tank fired, and the large shell came screaming towards our position. It hit the ground about ten yards in front of me and Lex as we were hunched down in the foxhole, bouncing off the earth a flying off behind us.

I raised my BAR and took a few shots at the infantry advancing behind the tanks, and managed to hit one in the head. She careened to the dirt, dark blue blood pouring out of a very large head wound. Her fellows managed to get into better position and avoided my second and third bursts.

Abyssal infantry weren't built as nearly as sturdy as their ships. With a few exceptions, infantry were built with physical prowess very close to a human's. The reason they were so successful in their attacks, though, was because they were built in astounding numbers in landed factory ships. Quantity over quality, as the saying goes.

I ducked back down and yelled, "Freidrich! Do your men have any anti-tank?!"

He called out in German and received a few responses. "A few of my men have Panzerfausts, but we can't get close enough to use them! Take out the infantry, and we can get the tanks!"

I cursed. I could _maybe_ weather the hail of gunfire enough to get close and take the soldiers out, but that also brought the risk of exposing myself to the tanks.

"Lex, what do you have?" I turned my head to the man as he fired his pistol at the Abyssals.

He looked down at his belt and said, "I've got a B-25, but there's no way it'll make it out when we're under this much fire."

I cursed again.

As I thought about what I could do, it suddenly occurred to me that whatever was going to be done needed to be done _now_. The Abyssals were within a few dozen feet of the French in front of us, and they were getting easily picked off when they even stuck their head out for a second. One of the tanks aimed it's cannon down at the trench in front of it and let loose a jet of flame from the machine gun port.

' _That's new.'_ I thought. But this was the opportunity I needed. The flame would produce a thick cloud of black smoke, reducing the enemy's vision.

"Roma, with me!" I leaped out of the foxhole and charged towards the second tank, which was currently raking an adjacent trench with machine gun fire. Roma slapped a new magazine into her Model 38 and was hot on my heels.

"Suppressing fire!" Lex called out, which Freidrich repeated in German. Their voices were drowned out by the sudden torrent of gunfire aimed at the infantry behind the tanks.

Roma and I closed the thirty yards to the closest French position in moments, leaping over the stunned soldiers as they tried to get as small as they could in the ditch.

As I expected, the first tank's flamethrower created a thick smoke that made it hard to see anything past the veil. The dry ground was instantly alight, crackling and popping as it combusted. Soldiers screamed as they were burned alive.

We past through the thick cloud in time to see that the tanks had stopped to concentrate on firing, so the infantry behind them shuffled out and started to clear the trenches. The smoke was blocking my team's vision as well, so the Abyssals were able to move with a bit more cover as they jumped into the ditches to attack the soldiers. Bayonets pierced flesh, hands tightened around throats, rocks bashed skulls. The men put up a good fight, but the tired and malnourished Frenchmen had little chance.

The two of us couldn't help them. We needed to take out the tanks.

We managed to approach the occupied trench at full speed and jump over it, but that's when they noticed us. A couple of the Abyssals stopped brawling long enough to take a few shots at us. My durable biology and uniform helped reduce the bullets' lethality, but that doesn't mean the shots hurt any less.

A couple of rounds from their bolt-actions hit me high in the back, causing me to stumble a bit but I managed to keep my balance just as Roma and I reached tank two.

"Cover me!" I say to her. She leaned around the corner of the tank and managed to cut down a couple of infantry that tried to re-position to get a shot at us. As she did this, I leaned my rifle against the tracks of the tank and reared my fist back.

I punched with all my might, leaving a fist sized dent in the tanks body. I let loose another fist and made the dent worse. A couple more punches made the metal malleable enough for me to grip it and start to rip it open. My fists gripped the metal and started to tear in opposite directions, and the hissing and bubbling language of the Abyssals could be heard through the sizable gash as the crew panicked.

One of them drew his pistol and shot me in the face a couple of times, but it was going to take a bigger bullet or a higher volume of fire to stop me.

I pulled a grenade from my bandoleer and pulled the pin before tossing it through the hole I'd made. The blast followed soon and certainly killed the tank's crew. I retrieved my rifle and helped Roma fire at the entrenched Abyssals.

 _BOOOM_

The burnt out tank we'd taken cover behind suddenly exploded and was lifted off the ground as it flipped to it's side. Roma realized this first, and tackled me out of the path of the capsizing tank.

"Holy shit..." I said to myself.

"Did the ammo cook off?" Roma asked as she started to help me up.

"No," I state, "The thing would've exploded upwards if that was the case."

The actual cause of the explosion rumbled around the back of the flipped tank. Tank number one aimed it's gun at us.

" _DOWN!_ " It was my turn to save Roma as I grabbed her and pulled her down with me just in time to dodge the large tank shell aimed for her. We started to roll on the ground as we aimed for a small mound that would give us a bit of cover. The tank's turret swiveled to track us, letting loose with it's flamethrower just as we crawled over the lip of the mound.

' _I REALLY do not want to die this way'_ I found my thoughts earlier today about burning to death trickling back to me.

The tank rolled steadily forward towards us. Roma peeked her submachine gun out to fire at the advancing infantry, but was met by a river of bullets that threw up the dirt in front of her and a jet of flame that nearly hit her.

It was looking pretty grim.

I peaked my head out for barely a second, and caught a glimpse of the remaining twenty-or-so Abyssal infantry as they stayed low and made their way to our position. The tank continued it's slow advance directly at us.

It was time.

I had promised myself after New Hampshire and Ohio died that I would never let another Ark die without me having tried all I can to let them live.

If it meant sacrificing myself, I'd do it.

"Roma, get ready to move!" I reloaded a fresh magazine into my BAR.

"Moe, there's no way we can move like this!" She shouted over the roaring of gunfire and flames.

"Maybe not us, but you can! Now go!" I stood from the mound and sprayed at the infantry, nailing a few of them and taking return fire myself.

The tank stopped to fire a gout of flame, hitting me directly in the torso and face. The boiling heat seared my flesh, charring my uniform.

' _Yep, this sucks about as much as I thought it would.'_

I had already thrown my last grenade so I didn't have to worry about the heat blowing it up, but my ammo was another point. If it started to cook off, it would very likely be the end for me.

I yelled out in anger as I held the trigger down on my rifle, firing at the tank as I slowly approached it. I must've hit the driver through the view slit, as it suddenly careened to the side and stopped. The turret still pointed at me, however. By now the cannon had to be reloaded.

' _Sorry to leave you like this, Louie. You and Cali have each other, though. Look after the team, will you?'_ My final thoughts raced through my mind.

She was in them.

' _Haruna, I'm sorry.'_

The words on my ID plate came to me, as if a death poem. They were incredibly personal, and most of the time they weren't shared between Arks. Hell, Louie and I didn't even know each other's. That would change soon, I figured.

I screamed them at the top of my lungs, the flames licking at my airways.

 _"I GIVE MY HEART OF GOLD AND SILVER"_

I screamed them like a mad-man, which, admittedly, I was.

I was in such a berserk state that I didn't even realize that the return fire had stopped. In fact, I was still alive, not blown apart by the S-class.

Alive, yes. Conscious? Hell, no.

I dropped my rifle and collapsed.


End file.
